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Pharmaceutical Drugs

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Although pharmaceutical drugs on the whole greatly improve patient outcomes and quality of life when used as prescribed, they are not without their complications. RAND research on pharmaceuticals examines their safety and effectiveness, relevant health economics issues, prescription drug abuse, challenges related to access and adherence, and pharmaceutical regulatory policy.

Report

How to Best Enable Pharma Innovation Beyond the COVID-19 Crisis

May 26, 2020

Innovating in response to public health challenges like COVID-19 does not always align well with pharmaceutical industry commercial models or shareholder expectations. More sustainable and scalable ways of incentivizing innovation in response to infectious disease threats are needed.
Essay

The Astronomical Price of Insulin Hurts American Families

Jan 6, 2021

More than 30 million Americans have diabetes, and nearly a quarter of them use insulin to manage their symptoms and prevent life-threatening complications. The price they have to pay for insulin is more than ten times higher than the average prices in 32 other countries combined.

Explore Pharmaceutical Drugs

News Release

Prescription Drug Prices in the United States Are 2.56 Times Those in Other Countries

Prescription drug prices in the United States are significantly higher than in other nations, with prices in the United States averaging 2.56 times those seen in 32 other nations.

Jan 28, 2021
Report

U.S. Prescription Drug Prices Are 2.56 Times Those in Other Countries

Prices for prescription drugs in the United States in 2018 were 256 percent of those in 32 comparison countries combined. For brand-name drugs, U.S. prices were 344 percent higher. But for generic drugs, they were only 84 percent of the average paid in other nations.

Jan 28, 2021
Report

Balancing Access and Cost Control in the TRICARE Prescription Drug Benefit

The Military Health System provides health and drug coverage to beneficiaries through TRICARE. This report describes the TRICARE pharmacy benefit and the trade-offs in TRICARE pharmacy policies between increasing access and controlling costs.

Jan 14, 2021
Blog

A Message from Our President, Medical Mistrust, Insulin Prices: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on Wednesday’s siege on the U.S. Capitol, Americans' psychological distress, medical mistrust and COVID-19 vaccines, and more.

Jan 8, 2021
Periodical

RAND Review: January-February 2021

The cover story on the ’Internet of Bodies’ highlights the perils of devices that track personal health data and provide medical treatment. Other columns explore vaccine hesitancy, the high price of insulin in the U.S., and social justice in America.

Jan 6, 2021
Journal Article

Assessment of Filled Buprenorphine Prescriptions for Opioid Use Disorder During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

Retail buprenorphine sales for opioid addiction plateau during COVID-19 pandemic amidst sharp declines in total prescription sales.

Dec 30, 2020
Report

RAND Technical Expert Panel Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Contract Star Ratings, July 22, 2020 Meeting

On July 22, 2020, the RAND Corporation convened a Technical Expert Panel (TEP) web meeting to gather input on analyses that could be conducted to further enhance the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Contract Star Ratings program.

Dec 23, 2020
Journal Article

Unintended Consequences of Products Liability: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Market

This article explains a surprising effect of tort liability in the market for prescription drugs: punitive damages shift liability from doctors to drug companies, but not when physician malpractice liability is limited."

Dec 11, 2020
Tool

How to Integrate Pharmacotherapy for Alcohol Use at Your Mental Health Clinic

RAND researchers provide a toolkit to support the delivery of effective, evidence-based pharmacotherapy for clients with co-occurring alcohol use disorder and simplify care implementation in mental health clinics.

Dec 4, 2020
Journal Article

A Mixed-Method Comparison of Physician-Reported Beliefs About and Barriers to Treatment with Medications for Opioid Use Disorder

We conducted a mixed-methods study that involved focus group interviews and an online survey disseminated to a random group of licensed U.S. physicians, which oversampled physicians with a preexisting waiver to prescribe buprenorphine.

Oct 13, 2020
Blog

Election Interference on Twitter, Insulin Prices, Remote Learning: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on evidence of interference in the 2020 election on Twitter, U.S. insulin prices compared to those of other countries, how parents can help their kids' education stay on track during the pandemic, and more.

Oct 9, 2020
News Release

Insulin Prices Are Dramatically Higher in the United States Than in Other Countries

Insulin prices are more than eight times higher in the United States than in 32 high-income comparison nations combined.

Oct 6, 2020
Report

U.S. Insulin Prices Are Often Five to Ten Times Higher Than Those in Other Countries

In the United States, the average price per unit across all types of insulin is $98.70. That's higher than what it costs in 32 high-income comparison nations, ranging from 3.8 times higher than prices in Chile to 27.7 times higher than those in Turkey.

Oct 6, 2020
Multimedia

Sustainable Pharmaceutical Innovation for COVID-19 and Other Infectious Diseases

RAND Europe's Sonja Marjanovic describes the critical success criteria for innovation in infectious disease, antimicrobial, and vaccine research and development.

Sep 16, 2020
Multimedia

The Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry

RAND Europe's Sonja Marjanovic explains how changes in society have brought about opportunities for the pharmaceutical industry to innovate to better meet the needs of patients and health care systems.

Sep 8, 2020
Journal Article

Opioid Prescribing History Prior to Heroin Overdose Among Commercially Insured Adults

We used insurance claims to examine the prevalence and prescribing patterns of prescription opioids in a national cohort of individuals experiencing a treated heroin-related overdose between 2010 and 2017.

Jul 31, 2020
Journal Article

The Public Health Value of Opioid Litigation

This article proceeds in three parts: discussions of the general goals and role of public health tort litigation, the demonstrated and potential value of opioid litigation to achieve public health goals, and a conclusion.

Jul 31, 2020
Commentary

Why States' 'Netflix Model' Prescription Drug Arrangements Are No Silver Bullet

Despite the buzz and catchy notion that subscription models are "Netflix for drugs," it's hard to come up with a theoretical case that supports subscription models over traditional price negotiation between payers and manufacturers over a per-dose or per-unit price.

Jul 1, 2020
Journal Article

Variation in the Degree of Concentration of Prescription Opioid Utilization Using Different Measures

A small share of prescription opioid users account for a large percent of total prescription opioid use.

Jun 26, 2020

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RAND Topic:
Pharmaceutical Drugs

Topic Synonyms:
Medicinal Drugs

Research conducted by

RAND Health Care