Analysis of My Rhetorical Situation

It's time to begin production of my QRF involving the debate behind whether high-cost MS drugs should be cheaper. To start off, I thought it'd be helpful to go through the rhetorical situation. Who is the audience for this QRG, and how will I engage them?

• The audience likely consists of end-users and consumers curious to know why drug prices generally are high. MS drugs are a poster-child for the skyrocketing pharmaceutical costs, but the audience extends far beyond people merely interested in multiple sclerosis. However, they likely care about the economics of health care, and they be a more traditional, perhaps conservative, middle-aged group that reads news from media such as the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times. The reader likely is familiar with how expensive specialty drugs are these days, but they may not know why these drugs are so pricey. They don't need a crash-course in economics, but they do need to know the factors that can influence biotech decision-making. 

• My purpose is to ensure that my audience walks away knowing why MS drugs got so expensive, and what the consequences of these price hikes are. Once they know the factors underlying pricing decisions and they know the effects these decisions have, then they can make their own, informed decision as to whether MS drugs should be cheaper. The audience needs to be able to evaluate future sources as well. This means they must know that certain players (pharmacy benefit managers, insurers, MS patients) will want lower prices while other players (biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical companies, and shareholders) prefer prices to remain high.

• I believe I'm the right author for this QRF. I don't claim to have a particularly strong background in the economics of health care. However, I have a good background in chemistry and can keep up with the articles focusing on how MS drugs work. At the same time, I was an accountant for two years, so I feel I can grasp how pharmaceuticals weight R&D risk. Finally, I can certainly empathize with MS patients who must make the life-altering choice of either spending most of their income on prescriptions or exposing themselves to potential muscular and neural degeneration. In the end, I believe I can portray both the economic and health factors fairly, and that all stakeholders will have their sides fairly represented. Since objectivity is key in a QRF, I think this works in my favor.