Capitalizing a Cure – How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines

"This book is a riveting read that will strike fear in the heart of anybody who cares about the right to health or thinks that the drive for profit should not supersede democracy or human need. It exposes why the price tags on medicines are so high and what the systems are that keep it that way."--Salmaan Keshavjee, author of Blind Spot: How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Global Health

"This is the best piece of nonfiction I have read in a long time. This book offers a fantastic, relevant, and necessary case study to understand how the financialization of the economy has affected the organization of industrial sectors by focusing on what has happened in the biopharmaceutical sector."--Marc-André Gagnon, Professor of Public Policy and Political Economy, Carleton University

"Capitalizing a Cure debunks several myths used to justify today's pharmaceutical business model and shows how the purpose of improving people's health gets lost in the machinations of financialized capitalism. An eye-opener for scholars and policymakers seeking to reform our medical innovation ecosystem."--Els Torreele, former Director of the Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign and Visiting Fellow at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

"This book sheds light on an underappreciated yet critical driver of spiraling medicines prices: who finances pharmaceutical R&D, how, and why. Roy's careful excavation of the story behind breakthrough hepatitis C treatments is essential reading for anyone interested in the challenge of ensuring everyone can benefit from scientific progress."--Suerie Moon, Co-Director at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute

"What is the price of a drug? Does it represent profit, value, or the person who might benefit from a curative medicine? Roy's book is a brilliant inspection of these dynamic concepts that helps us understand the decisions we are making as a society through drug pricing."--Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS, Professor of Medicine and Public Health, Yale University