What should be done about the outrageous increases in prescription drug prices?

[theeedude]

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-08/why-prescription-drug-prices-keep-rising-higher

Earl Harford, a retired professor who lives in Tucson, recently bought a month’s worth of the pills he needs to keep his leukemia at bay. The cost: $7,676, three times more than when he began taking the pills in 2001. Over the years he’s paid more than $140,000 of his retirement savings to cover his share of the drug’s price. “People with this condition are being taken advantage of by the pharmaceutical industry,” says Harford. “They haven’t improved the drug; they haven’t done anything but keep manufacturing it. How do they justify it?”

Drug prices are not just increasing they are multiplying in a matter of years. It seems ridiculous that products like EpiPen which have been around forever are tripling in prices.
Should the Republican ban on Medicare negotiating lower prices on prescription drugs for seniors be lifted? Should US stop approving pharmaceutical industry mergers that give drug companies excessive pricing power and reduce competition? Should we allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries?
I think all of the above.

 

[Anarchist420]

the FDA and ip should be abolished because they is nothing but fascism and contributes to a shitload of waste and high prices while not increasing innovation. repealing ip wont reduce the cost of all drugs so that everyone who wants them can take as much as they wish to, but it will cut prices a lot.

and medicare should be repealed but at least part d should not pay for anything other than imported or generic drugs... most of the american pharmaceutical industry is a sham.

 

[Sonikku]

The answer is simple. Simply give Congress more free speech than the pharmaceutical companies are on matters of hand tying Medicare from negotiating on drug costs.

 

[TheVrolok]

All I know is them doctors getting all them kickbacks

 

[nickbits]

I noticed the billed amount of my avonex was up from 4500 to 5500 over the last year, so I'm not surprised it was on the chart. Luckily I only pay $40.

But those are all retail prices that not many people pay, especially now with obamacare and mandatory drug coverage. Plus some drug companies have programs to help. Biogen has a program do you only pay $10 per month but I figure I make too much to be bothered with applying.

As to controlling the costs, we need to stop all research and make do with what is available now.

 

[theeedude]

The research argument is a ruse. There was no additional research done on these drugs that precipitated the price increases. These are not some new and improved versions, these are same old drugs, just with a jacked up price. Same old Epi-Pen, same old Viagra.

 

[Anubis]

All I know is them doctors getting all them kickbacks

 

[Jaskalas]

I favor the patent for important prescription medication being bought out by the government. Then it is publicly available to produce at the cheapest price possible.

 

[allisolm]

At the same time more popular drugs have gone generic and those prices have gone down. In excess of 80% of all prescriptions filled are for generic drugs and around 75% of prescriptions cost the patient $10 or less.

My husband and I take 3 drugs that are all generic and over the years the prices have come down until now are 3 all free to us.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-prescription-drug-spending-drops-for-first-time-in-58-years/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/13/price-of-a-prescription-rising-again/1918099/

 

[Corn]

I propose to shoot all identified lefties. Thus driving down the demand for these drugs. That should lower prices and enhance other benefits for the productive class.

 

[theeedude]

At the same time more popular drugs have gone generic and those prices have gone down. In excess of 80% of all prescriptions filled are for generic drugs and around 75% of prescriptions cost the patient $10 or less.

My husband and I take 3 drugs that are all generic and over the years the prices have come down until now are 3 all free to us.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-prescription-drug-spending-drops-for-first-time-in-58-years/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/13/price-of-a-prescription-rising-again/1918099/

Just because your copay has gone down doesn't mean the price of the drug has gone down.
Actually prices of generics have gone up too:
http://www.businessweek.com/article...rices-spike-in-pharmaceutical-market-surprise

Bill Drilling, an owner of a pharmacy in Sioux City, Iowa, apologizes as he rings up a customer’s three-month supply of the heart medicine digoxin. The total is $113.12—almost 10 times the cost for the same prescription in August. Digoxin isn’t a new miracle drug. It’s a plant-derived medicine that’s been in use since the 18th century and one of nearly 100 generics that have at least doubled in price over the past year, an unprecedented number, according to pharmacists and industry consultants.

And here's a real kicker:
http://www.businessweek.com/article...ug-delays-push-novartiss-diovan-prices-higher

In the drug business, the arrival of generic competition usually means falling prices as rivals rush to win market share for medicines whose patents have expired. Then there’s Diovan from Novartis (NVS), a blockbuster heart pill that lost patent protection in September 2012. In a process specified by U.S. patent law, India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories (RBXY:IN) won the exclusive right to copy Diovan for the first six months of the medicine’s generic period. But U.S. regulators’ safety concerns over Ranbaxy’s factories in India have kept the company from selling its Diovan version. Since other drugmakers can’t market their own generics until Ranbaxy’s pill has been on sale for 180 days, Novartis continues to be the only seller of the heart pill in the U.S.—at a price that’s 37 percent higher than what the company charged when the medicine was under patent.

Basically US patent law allows for a single company to win monopoly to manufacture the generic drug for the first six months. And here is the biggest outrage. If that company can't or won't manufacture it safely, everyone else is blocked, by US law, from manufacturing it, even if they could do so safely, and it effectively remains a monopoly for the original patent holder, indefinitely. This is a rigged system to fleece Americans.

 

[theeedude]

I propose to shoot all identified lefties. Thus driving down the demand for these drugs. That should lower prices and enhance other benefits for the productive class.

I'll play along.
That's like saying a robber is going to ask for less money if there are fewer people to rob. This is a monopoly, and customer is under duress, regular supply demand rules don't apply.
Drug companies will just increase prices to compensate for smaller customer base.

 

[preCRT]

Epi-pens have changed, they now come in a two pack, instead of a single.
Their packaging is much fancier than before as well.

I'm sure both changes account for part of the price increase, as well as corporate greed.

 

[HeXen]

Just because your copay has gone down doesn't mean the price of the drug has gone down.
Actually prices of generics have gone up too:
http://www.businessweek.com/article...rices-spike-in-pharmaceutical-market-surprise


And here's a real kicker:
http://www.businessweek.com/article...ug-delays-push-novartiss-diovan-prices-higher


Basically US patent law allows for a single company to win monopoly to manufacture the generic drug for the first six months. And here is the biggest outrage. If that company can't or won't manufacture it safely, everyone else is blocked, by US law, from manufacturing it, even if they could do so safely, and it effectively remains a monopoly for the original patent holder, indefinitely. This is a rigged system to fleece Americans.

But what's going to be done about it?...oh yeah, not a damn thing. So moving on...who's gonna go outside today?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I can't wait to hear the solutions.

 

[QuantumPion]

Just pass a law making all prescription drugs cost proportionally based on your wealth. It's immoral and wrong for the drug companies to earn a profit on drugs that people literally need to live. So anyone making less than the living wage ($100k/year) gets all drugs for free. The 1% can pay millions for their drugs since that price hurts them the same as $1000 drugs would a poor person.

 

[theeedude]

I can't wait to hear the solutions.

Other countries have solved it. Government sets limits on prescription drug prices. At the very least, Medicare should be allowed to set a limit for how much taxpayer money it will pay.

 

[row]

more berriecare

 

[sandorski]

Well, I think when Marijuana Legalization becomes widespread Organized Crime just found it's new Product. Smuggled Prescription Drugs from Canada and Mexico.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Other countries have solved it. Government sets limits on prescription drug prices. At the very least, Medicare should be allowed to set a limit for how much taxpayer money it will pay.

And precisely how is this done? Insurance already limits payments and that includes government programs.

 

[theeedude]

And precisely how is this done? Insurance already limits payments and that includes government programs.

It doesn't limit prescription drug payments. GOP explicitly banned that. It pays "prevailing" prices. So it makes sense for drug companies to make "prevailing" prices high. Not only can they rip off regular ratepayers, they can then use those prices to rip off Medicare.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

It doesn't limit prescription drug payments. GOP explicitly banned that. It pays "prevailing" prices. So it makes sense for drug companies to make "prevailing" prices high. Not only can they rip off regular ratepayers, they can then use those prices to rip off Medicare.

There is no limit to what manufacturers can charge pharmacies for their products but the amount paid for is entirely determined by insurance. You don't know this?

 

[theeedude]

There is no limit to what manufacturers can charge pharmacies for their products but the amount paid for is entirely determined by insurance. You don't know this?

Entirely? You are saying it was the insurance companies that determined to pay 3 times as much for same drugs?

 

[zanejohnson]

here's what you do:

you opt out, dont participate.........what we call "modern medicine" is a SCAM... it's more like modern way of keeping your slaves dependent on your drugs (drugs which are horrible, have only been around for less than a century, (which is not enough time for proper testing/trials in the real world)

i mean, seriously......they are trying to treat anxiety and depression with drugs that inhibit (force) your brain to have an artificial brain chemistry anomoly...










there's real medicine out there people,...it doesnt come from big pharma, as big pharma is nothing but another arm of the totalitarian modern slavery civilization we call the western world.


use the medicine that is proved, over 1000's of years to work, and work every single time, with basically no side effects......

those would be:
Ethyl Alcohol: probably the worlds greatest anti-depressant, also a great diuretic

Morphine (opium) ............treats moderate to severe pain, depression, anxiety

Cannibus .............treats mild pain (things like simple headaches, stomach aches, indigestion, stimulates appetite, and............. in a few years after we get over this prude era of time, we'll find it actually does incredible things like kill cancer cells, promote neurogenisis

cocaine (anaesthetic) could treat narcolepsy, could be used as a substitue for caffeine in alot of instances where people need to be work for long hours without sleep.

 

[bozack]

The US is one of the last areas that Pharma's can recoup their big R&D spend and hopefully turn a profit so they can invest in the next treatment.

Killing patent protection (which is short already when one considers the time the drug actually goes to market) and or regulating prices will mean less companies spend on R&D for new treatments period.

All of the mergers are just big bloated pharmas with nothing left in their pipelines trying to do whatever they can to consolidate resources in the hopes that one of their smaller research teams stumble upon something with potential or biding time until they can acquire a company working towards a new breakthrough.