National funding debates

With an eye on the national funding debates, annelid specialist John Percy Moore strongly supported what Schmitt and Wharton were attempting. Taxonomy certainly needs to be vivified and justified in the eyes of the scientific world and of the sponsoring foundations, to whom it has been misrepresented. He suggested weighty arguments in favor of the plan. 

By the early 1970s, debates over pharmacy manpower, pharmacists roles, and pharmacy education were heightened. In 1972, AACP President Arthur Schwarting recommended the formation of a Commission on Pharmacy to study the scope of pharmacy services in health care and to project the educational requirements needed to train pharmacists to provide these services. The commission was chaired by John S. Millis, President of the National Fund for Medical Education. The Millis Commission s report, Pharmacists for the Future, was published in 1975. The report contained 14 recommendations for pharmacy practice and education. Among these were continued movement of pharmacy as a knowledge-based clinical profession, increased development of clinical practice sites for pharmacy school faculty, and development of a national board licensing exam for pharmacists. 

Cutler and Kadiyala s (2003) estimates of life expectancy benefits associated with improved cardiovascular treatment suggest a high value of pharmaceutical products relative to costs. An analysis at the national level would provide confirmation that the value of pharmaceuticals is not limited to cardiovascular disease. Here we performed such an analysis for Canada, where the public funding of health care has led to extensive debate over its value and, more specifically, over the value of pharmaceutical products whose rate of growth within the health care budget continues to increase. 

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