Merrill Goozner

Biography:

Merrill Goozner is Director of the Integrity in Science project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest and contributing editor to The American Prospect. Prior to this, he was Chief Economics Correspondent at the Chicago Tribune. Merrill is an accomplished journalist, author, and researcher with over 20 years experience in the news business and he has three years teaching experience at the graduate level. Merrill received a Masters from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a BA in History from the University of Cincinnati. In addition, he is the winner of six Peter Lisagor Awards.

Past Shows:

	Pharmaceutical Costs
	Wednesday May 18, 2005

Merrill Goozner, the author of The 800 Million Dollar Pill, presented a critical look at the medical and pharmaceutical industry. Americans pay the highest price for drugs, because most other countries have national health plans which are able to negotiate with the suppliers. Because in America there is a highly fragmented system of numerous health care providers, the suppliers are in a "better bargaining position" to name their prices, he explained. Goozner detailed how Cox-2 Inhibitor drugs such as Vioxx were advertised as breakthrough pain killers, when actually they were no more effective than over-the-counter medications like aspirin. This occurred around the time that direct consumer advertising for pharmaceuticals became legal, so many patients were blanketed by TV commercials touting the new drugs. Not only did the prescriptions cost much much more than the over-the-counter pain killers, it was later revealed that the Cox-2 drugs were associated with heart attack risk, a f ... More
Host: George Noory