My mother.” She swallowed, fighting to get the words out. “She was the daughter of a preacher and she made it clear to me that a good girl doesn’t like sex. Sex is something that was to be endured and not sought out. So I wanted to be a good girl, and even though I had boyfriends, I couldn’t let my mother’s words go after hearing them for so long. But...” Her eyes slid down his body. She was afraid to continue. It just makes sense. I want you here all the time and you want to be too. So why don’t you just move in?” Gabe stood up for me and told them that I was with him the entire time preparing their food. Since then, he’s been a great friend but sometimes he overshares his opinion. There are good reasons why a pharmaceutical company might, legitimately, set a high price for a new medicine. When scientists decrypt a new disease, pharmaceutical companies start the painstaking search for a compound that might offer an effective treatment. The history of drug development documents the victories (Zidovudine and Didanosine for HIV, for example) rather than all the projects that came to nothing. Yet only 5 in 5,000 drugs make it from preclinical development to clinical trials. And only one of those makes it through clinical trials to become an approved drug. This is an industry where development costs are high and the likelihood of success is low. These and other complexities – for example, how to apportion research and development costs between countries – also make it almost impossible to calculate what a ‘fair price’ might look like. Yes, but I wasn’t sure you would go for it. Actually, it was Tina that pushed me to tell you about it. Tina was afraid you wouldn’t do it if she put it out there. I have to admit to being surprised, but I think it’s a great idea. I’ve had a chance to meet Paul, and he is absolutely gorgeous. He can help you satisfy your needs and reintroduce you to the world of sex and men. So when the time comes to really put yourself out there, you won’t be so tentative. When Kelly first went to work for Paul, she was mousy, scared of her own shadow. Now she’s confident, ballsy, and I really do think Paul had a lot to do with that, in a very good way.”

Patents are a particularly powerful mechanism for protecting prices and profitability in medicines. This is because new medicines are easy to define and patent (as a chemical entity has a specific formula that can be patented). It is also because both public health care and private health insurance look to insulate the patient and doctor from the cost of paying for health care at the point of use. This means patients and doctors are not put off by high prices because they do not pay them directly. Governments and insurers meanwhile want to give as many people access as they can, while keeping control of spending. His dark eyes studied her intently. “If you agree to this then you need to know that your body, your pussy, belongs to me, and me alone, while this lasts. Everyone but me is off limits. Do you understand that? No one gets close enough to even touch you.”

India is on the wrong side of history,’ declared President Bill Clinton post New Delhi’s nuclear tests in 1998 and came down with an array of sanctions. Cut to the present, India is no longer the enemy for the US. In an age dominated not just by China’s rise but by its undoubted political and economic muscle power, India has become the fashionable new ally in Washington. Companies can typically set high prices for a patented new drug on release, particularly if there are no alternative treatments for the condition. If other companies launch effective new treatments while a drug is in patent, the incumbent may then be forced to reduce prices if it wants to continue selling its drug in large volumes. However, it is only when the patent expires that companies can start manufacturing and selling generic versions of the drug (a medicine with the same active pharmaceutical ingredient as the originator drug) or a biosimilar version for more complex drugs (a medicine that doesn’t have any clinically meaningful differences from the originator drug). When generics or biosimilars enter the market, prices go down and the originator’s profits typically drop rapidly. His masculine hiss and low growl only heightened her need for him, as her hand caressed the swell of his bottom, Darius yanking her in harder against himself.

NICE works to a set of principles when assessing new drugs and technologies. It aims to identify care that is high quality, good value, and provides the best outcomes for people using health services within the budget available. It also commits to carry out its work independently, to consult broadly, to consider the advice of professionals and service users, to rely on robust information, and to base its recommendations on an assessment of population benefits and value for money. It also strives to ‘balance the need to achieve the most overall benefit for the greatest number of people with the need to ensure fairness and respect for individual choice’.

She saw the hardness once more return to his features, his fingers gripping her tighter. “You are exactly who I think you are Sara. Did it give you pleasure to fire me all those years ago, when I told you I was innocent - to accuse me of being a thief? Did it make you feel good? Because now it is my turn and believe me, I am going to enjoy this” With that he hauled her hard up against himself, his mouth taking hers in a punishing kiss, her whimper lost as she tried in vain to push him away, his arms moving around her waist, holding her tightly to him. Tell me why someone as beautiful as you would want this job.” His dark chocolate eyes were intent on her, and she couldn’t even blink. The thought of breaking the connection was painful. Her tummy curled and her breathing fractured. “But my boyfriends, they didn’t seem to care about what I wanted and what felt good to me, so it wasn’t that hard to be good. I have never been wet with anticipation before. I looked at sex as something I had to do, not something I wanted to do. When my fiancé and I broke up, I was more than content to not be with someone again, but it’s been so long now. It’s becoming so that my vibrator isn’t enough, and I want more.” She leaned into him, greedy for the touch of his body against hers.