Ben Wiener & Salomon Stavchansky

Ben Wiener & Salomon Stavchansky

I had a fantastic meeting with Ben Wiener & Salomon Stavchansky. We met in Vancouver to discuss the production of my new historical documentary on the “Impact of Generic Drugs on the Changing Health Care Environment.” Dr. Stavchansky is a Professor at the College of Pharmacy, University of Texas at Austin, and an internationally recognized expert on the generic drug industry. Ben Wiener was one of the early entrepreneurs in the Generic Drug industry, dating back to the 1940s. Both Ben and Sol are fantastic mentors to this documentary project. I am tremendously grateful for their influence and support.

Ben Wiener - The History of the Generic Drugs Revolution

Ben Wiener – Generic Drugs pioneer

I drove down to Vancouver WA to interview Ben Wiener. Ben is a pioneer of the Generic Drugs industry. Back in the late 1940s, Ben began to realize the incredible disparity between the costs and prices of prescription drugs. He began a lifetime quest to bring generic drugs to the American mainstream. Today as Ben looks back at his incredible career, he cannot believe that because of some bad decisions he is broke and the industry he founded is positively impacting every American family. This interview is just the beginning of a new documentary we are creating about the History of the Generic Drug Industry. The interview with Ben went very well. We talked for almost five hours. I was totally fascinated by the incredible history tales of the birth of Generic drugs, from stories of "patent jumping" to scary scenes of death threats and battles with the FDA. Ben is a very interesting fellow with a remarkable story. We are working now to put together a proposal we can show investors to really do this film as a major motion picture for national distribution.