Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116539

Cynthia A. Pearson, National Women's Health Network, 514 Tenth Street, NW, Fourth Floor, Washington, DC 20004, 202-347-1140, cpearson@womenshealthnetwork.org

The United States is the global profit center for the pharmaceutical industry. The ability to make relatively unrestricted profits here is zealously defended by Big Pharma, leading to public policy that creates barriers to the expansion of basic and comprehensive health care for all. Reining in the power of Big Pharma is one of several necessary steps towards universal health care in the United States. But how? And by whom? The women's health movement has a substantial history of making change in health care in the United States. Over the last forty years, women's health activists have changed who can become a doctor, what doctors can do, how patients are treated and what they have a right to know. The movement's skills in identifying important issues and catalyzing grassroots action, if applied to Big Pharma, have the potential to build support for greater societal oversight and control of the pharmaceutical industry, similar to society's greater oversight of the medical profession. What are the opportunities for oversight, control and ultimately reining in the power of Big Pharma? This presentation will cover current policy opportunities and the role that the women's health movement can play in advocating for change.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to

• Identify current policy opportunitites to rein in the power of Big Pharma.
• Describe sucessful strategies and tactics used by the women's health movement to make change in the medical profession.
• Discuss potential issues relating to regulation of the pharmaceutical industry that may be appropriate targets for women's health activism.

Keywords: Universal Health Care, Women's Health

Related Web page: www.nwhn.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.