Why are Prescription Drug Prices So High?
Our speaker is Robin Feldman, Arthur J. Goldberg Distinguished Professor of Law, Albert Abramson ’54 Distinguished Professor of Law Chair, and Director of the Center for Innovation
Robin Feldman’s work focuses on the role of intellectual property law in technology and innovation; drug patents, pricing, and health care law; and artificial intelligence and data. She is the Arthur J. Goldberg Distinguished Professor of Law, the Albert Abramson ’54 Distinguished Professor of Law Chair, and Director of the UC Hastings Center for Innovation (C4i).
Feldman has published four books: Drugs, Money, & Secret Handshakes: The Unstoppable Growth of Prescription Drug Prices (Cambridge 2019); Drug Wars: How Big Pharma Raises Prices & Keeps Generics Off the Market (Cambridge 2017), Rethinking Patent Law (Harvard 2012), and The Role of Science in Law (Oxford 2009). She has published more than 50 articles in law journals, including at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, in The New England Journal of Medicine, and in the American Economic Review. Her op-ed articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, The Hill, and many others.
Professor Feldman’s work has been cited extensively by the White House, numerous federal and state agencies, and members of Congress. Her IP/Antitrust work was cited by both sides during a recent Supreme Court case. She has appeared frequently before committees of the US House & Senate, the California legislature, and federal agencies such as the FTC, DOJ, USPTO, and the National Academy of Sciences. She participated in the GAO’s report to Congress on Artificial Intelligence and in the Army Cyber Institute’s threat casting exercise on weaponization of data. She is also an elected member and appointed advisor to the American Law Institute’s Restatement of Copyright Project.
Feldman directs the UC Hastings Center for Innovation (C4i) with its flagship program, the Startup Legal Garage. Startup Legal Garage has been named one of the most innovative law school programs in the country and recognized by the American Association of Law Schools as one of the nation’s “Innovative & Other Outstanding Programs.” C4i also pursues research in health care law and identifies how the system can be improved while protecting innovation and ensuring that markets are fair, efficient, and transparent.
Feldman has won numerous awards, including the Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence, the Visionary Award from the UC Hastings Board of Directors, and the 1066 Foundation Award for Scholarship. In 2015, she was honored by the American Lawyer Publications as one of the Women Leaders in Tech Law, the sole academic to receive the honor.
Education
Stanford Law School, J.D.
- Urban A. Sontheimer Award
- Order of the Coif
- Stanford Law Review, Articles Department
- Hilmer Oehlmann Jr. Prize
Stanford University, B.A.
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Degree Awarded with Distinction
- Dean’s Award for Community Service Law
Clerk, The Honorable Joseph T. Sneed, U. S. Court of Appeals, 9thCir
Awards and Honors
- Leon I. Goldberg Memorial Lecture Award, 2020
- American Lawyer Publications, Women Leaders in Tech Law, 2016
- American Law Institute, Elected Member and Appointed Advisor to Restatement of Copyright Project, 2015
- Visionary Award from the UC Hastings Board of Directors, 2012
- Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching, UC Hastings, 2009
- 1066 Foundation Award for Scholarship, UC Hastings, 2004