We have a drug problem.

While medicines help in treating individuals, the availability of those products is controlled by complex interactions between law, economics, policy, and geography that extend beyond the individual. This course will serve as an introduction to the disparities in healthcare in the United States and globally. Such a multidisciplinary approach will expand individuals’ perceptions of global health and emphasize the strong potential for fields other than medicine to impact global health.

This course will assess the affordability of essential medicines, emphasizing the challenges intellectual property barriers place on the development of accessible medicines and healthcare. The course will allow students to foster an understanding and enthusiasm for the complex issues that underlie access to medicines; a topic which is normally inaccessible to many undergraduates. The end goal of this course is to provide students with the tools and information to tackle the problem of healthcare inaccessibility themselves.

The course consists of weekly 90 minute sessions where topics are taught and explored in small activities. There will be some minor assignments, a two-page midterm paper halfway through the semester, and a final project at the end of the semester.

**Note that the course name has been changed to Access to Medicines**