Piece Description

Engineering Pharmaceuticals explores one of the major causes of rising health care costs – development of new drugs.  It can cost up to a billion dollars to bring a new drug to market. This program goes behind the curtain and shows how drugs are created and looks at efforts to bring down the cost.

Engineering Pharmaceuticals takes a step back and explains what, exactly, drugs do; how they actually act to attack diseases.  We hear the sound of pharmaceutical scientists making new drug compounds as they explain the process and where its costs lie.  And we learn how engineers are helping redesign the drug manufacturing process to try and bring costs down.  We also learn the ramifications of these high costs in places where people can barely afford food, let alone much-needed pharmaceuticals.

We hear the story of a college freshman who suffered a rare brain tumor at age 13 and is now living with the consequences of his treatment.  We hear about his struggles and triumphs as he lives every day with the after-effects of his adventure in the world of pharmaceuticals.