The escalating cost of prescription drugs has helped fuel an ongoing debate about the affordability of health care, the ethics and economics of drug pricing, and the business and process of drug development and government regulation.

The Center for Ethics at Emory University is bringing together an interdisciplinary array of experts to engage this topic at a fall conference "Prescribing Price: The Ethics, Science, and Business of Drug Development and Pricing." The conference is co-sponsored by the Healthcare Ethics Consortium.

The conference takes place Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016 from 8:15 a.m.-3:00 p.m. at the Emory Conference Center, Starvine Ballroom, 1615 Clifton Rd., NE, Atlanta, GA 30329.

Registration is $15 for students, $25 for non-students.

For a complete agenda and registration, go to http://hcecg.org/Prescribing-Price-Conf.

Market forces, research and development costs, regulation, drug distribution and access, and pricing all interact in a complex way. The Center for Ethics is convening this conference to unpack the complexity.

The conference will focus on:

• The science of drug development
• The business of pharmaceuticals
• The ethics of drug development and pricing
• The role of government, academia, and public policy in drug development and pricing

"We seek to bring policy, research, business, healthcare, and other perspectives together for constructive conversation and ethical reflection on the complexity of drug development, pricing and accessibility to medicines that improve the public's health," says Kathy Kinlaw, Ethics Center associate director.

Panelists include experts in ethics, health policy and management, medicine and health care, law, pharmacology, drug development, international business and finance, ethics, and entrepreneurship.