Whenever medication is prescribed to you by a doctor or sold to you over-the-counter, almost every substance you ingest, inhale or inject will have a long and tangled history behind it. This wide-ranging discussion asks if medical science and clinical knowledge demands a more strategic approach than the current dependence on profit-seeking big pharma and the bean-counting paternalism of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Is it time to invest in a public vision for pharmaceuticals that prioritises medical R&D to improve clinical treatment over patenting healing compounds? Filmed at the Battle of Ideas Festival.
