Pharmaceutical policy making raises particular challenges in reconciling key objectives for health policy, such as ensuring affordable access to the latest effective drugs, with other important policy considerations, such as providing support to a valuable national industry. Unusually among...

Every year, up to US$45 billion are transferred from public budgets to manufacturing industry through support programmes in OECD countries. It is essential to perceive the significance of such support if we are to understand the role it plays in structural adjustment strategies and the...