It is with great pleasure that we announce a major change to the publishing program at the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics in 2021. Beginning with this issue, we are now co-publishing our two journals, The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics and The American Journal of Law & Medicine, with a new partner: Cambridge University Press. After five years with SAGE publishing, we have made the move to Cambridge because of all the opportunities it offers our two great journals, including greater visibility; better promotion of our work, our authors, and their articles; greater global reach; a more diverse distribution model; and a stronger, more flexible website for the journals that will better serve the needs of our readers. This issue that you hold in your hands is the first of what we hope is long partnership with our colleagues at Cambridge. We hope you enjoy this collaboration as much as we have so far. Please visit JLME’s new website at www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-law-medicine-and-ethics.
In the spirit of new beginnings, we wanted to mark the first issue of this partnership with a very special symposium, and I think we found one with “Public Sector and Non-Profit Contributions to Drug Development — Historical Scope, Opportunities, and Challenges,” guest-edited by our longtime friend Ameet Sarpatwari. Simply stated, Ameet argues in his introduction that “Particular concern has emerged because some of the new drugs and treatments emerging at high prices in the US, or that have been subject to some of the most substantial price increases over time, have benefitted in their development from critical public sector support.” In other words, why are citizens of the United States asked to pay some of the highest drug prices in the world, while it is our tax dollars that support the development of so many of these same medicines? This symposium examines that issue through any number of lenses, including of course how these challenges are shaping our nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The challenges of the pandemic and the United States government’s anemic response is also the topic of every single column in this issue, including incisive thoughts from our longtime column editors Mark Rothstein, James Hodge, and Aaron Kesselheim. As the COVID-19 vaccine is hesitatingly introduced in the United States (as of this writing) we begin to reflect on the many, many profound ways our response to this great tragedy could have been improved. These are questions we will be asking for many years, and it is one that is a fitting introduction to this new era of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.
