Sick Money: The Truth About The Global Pharmaceutical Industry With Billy Kenber

Welcome to another fantastic episode of the IDEA Collider│Pharma Book Club series with your host Mike Rea. Today we are joined by Billy Kenber, an investigative journalist at “The Times.” He talks about his journey to writing his book ‘Sick Money’ and the content in the book.

Additionally, he talks about the pharmaceutical industry’s social contract with patients and how its distortion has led to pharmaceutical greed. Moreover, he shares how the culture within the pharmaceutical industry has changed, why drug companies overprice the drugs, and what can be done to regulate drug pricing.

Tune in!

During this episode, you will learn about;

[00:22] Episode introduction

[01:08] Meet our guest; Billy Kenber

[01:22] His journey to writing his book ‘Sick Money’

[03:28] What the book is about

[06:11] How Concordia Pharmaceuticals & Valeant Pharmaceuticals companies

grew quickly and gained a short-term monopoly, thus hiking the drug prices

[10:40] What’s the geographical scope of the pharmaceutical fraud

[12:47] Pharmaceutical industry’s social contract with patients and how its distortion has led to pharmaceutical greed

[15:20] The first AIDS drug; AZT

[18:30] A background of AZT drug high pricing and how it led to other

pharmaceutical companies raising their prices

[22:47] How Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) raise drug prices for patients

[25:39] The ’Dirty Pharma’ chapter in his book

[28:45] Why drug companies overprice the drugs

[29:17] How the culture within the pharmaceutical industry has changed

[30:52] Pharmaceutical innovation after World War II; Antibiotics

[35:29] mRNA vaccines in the COVID-19 pandemic

[37:28] Effect of cultural changes in the pharmaceutical industry on the drugs we

get and how Research and Development (R&D) is done

[40:30] How cultural changes have affected orphan drugs and cancer drugs

[46:30] What can be done to regulate drug pricing?

[53:50] Recommended reading

[56:00] How to connect with Billy

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Let’s Connect!

Follow Billy Kenber on his;

Website: https://www.billykenber.com/ 

 Twitter: https://twitter.com/billykenber 

Linkt.ree: https://linktr.ee/billykenber 

To grab a copy of the ‘Sick Money’ book: https://amzn.to/3N4XJPD

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Follow Mike Rea on;

Website: https://www.ideapharma.com/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ideapharma 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bigidea/

To listen to more amazing podcast episodes: https://podcast.ideapharma.com/