Why can't pharmaceuticals be reduced to at-market level prices?

[Darwin333]

Yes but that is the same thing as enacting our own price controls via a different mechanism. We would, in effect, be adopting the price controls of countries like Canada. Which doesn't solve the problem of who will subsidize pharmaceutical innovation. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea and support it. But it doesn't address the problem I was discussing. The problem can't be addressed by the U.S. acting alone.

Sure it can. If you do not allow the drug companies to push off all of the R&D costs on us they will be forced to spread it out among everyone else they deal with. Instead of a drug being $100 here and $40 everywhere else it would be $60 for everyone and the drug companies would be making the same amount of money.

 

[dmcowen674]

Drug companies are out of control.
google spiriva and compare prices between the USA and Canada.
Spiriva USA - $245.00
Spiriva Canada - $65.00

Same drug, same manufacturer. I know someone who drives across the border just to get drugs in Canada because they cost too much here.

Another industry that needs to be Nationalized now and started over along with the banking/financial industry.

 

[Anarchist420]

Another industry that needs to be Nationalized now and started over along with the banking/financial industry.

The banking industry is quasi nationalized. The President appoints the head of the Federal Reserve System, the government takes the Fed's profits, and they tax gold and silver and give the Federal Reserve and banks the monopoly of counterfeiting. We have a national currency so the government already has nationalized the banks for the most part.

One could argue that the Pharmaceutical industry is quasi nationalized because that industry is regulated and it benefits massively from IP and import quotas.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

This.

It angers me that we are subsidizing drugs for the rest of the world.

If drug companies wanna charge them less, fine by me that's their business decision. But no way in h3ll should the US govt intervene and forbid US citizens etc from importing those cheaper US drugs back from foreign countries.

Fern

The US govt should stand up for our Pharma companies. If other countries don't want to honor our pharma patents we should ignore their patents in industries that they have an advantage in.

 

[tm37]

Ahem...they don't act in a bubble...they rely on universities, hospitals, etc...but somehow we let them price like they are in a bubble.

You should see what the universities and hospitals charge.

When dealing with medical and FDA the clinical trials are Very expensive. I spent over 12K for what amounted to about 6 days of work. I did not even buy the rights to the data and I was only required to pay "costs"

To say that pharma is relying on our education budget is just wrong. those studies employ and fund many research institutions.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

While we're at it let's reduce food prices to at-market levels. Baby products, consumer electronics, cars and iphones, as well. All of these are essential in our everyday lives.

Now, if you can tell me what "at-market" prices mean, I will award you a gold sticker.

hehe....Oh don't forget to reduce mansions and beach side property to "market levels" those things are too freaking expensive. 😀

 

[sportage]

Ever heard of Gleevev? Gleevec is used to control CML Leukemia. The same leukemia Ryan O’Neal suffers from. Gleevec is called a magic bullet. It totally stops CML Leukemia in its tracks as long as the drug is taken on a daily basis. One pill once a day.

Gleevec cost around $2300 for 30 pills, one month, when it first came out in 2003-2004.
Now the costs for one month, 30 Gleevec pills? $6800.
That is $6800 per month, every month, for life.
Who besides Ryan O’Neal can afford that?
Average life span after diagnosed with CML Leukemia without Gleevec? Three to six months. With Gleevec, a full normal life span.
Gleevec is just one example of the multiplying drug costs.
Not just rising, but doubling year after year.
Gleevec $3500 in 2010, $6500 in 2011.
Are drug costs going berserk? You tell me....
You love the current system we have?
You better pray every night that you or your child never get Leukemia.
And sure, fight against every effort by Obama to change the healthcare system.
Join the republican talking points. Keep the system just as it is.
And if you or your child should be diagnosed with CML Leukemia?
Follow that republican healthcare plan, get sick, die fast.
Because that will be your only republican healthcare plan option.

 

[spittledip]

Ahem...they don't act in a bubble...they rely on universities, hospitals, etc...but somehow we let them price like they are in a bubble.

Like Big Oil,Big Banks and Big Pharma they grease Congress's palms to look the other way.

And then what they sell us is garbage that treats symptoms (and generally not very well) and never cures illness, so we are forever enslaved .

 

[Zebo]

Because politically connected keep all foreign drugs out by law and govt issues patents for said drugs so you only got one source. There's a reason people fly to canada to git thier perscriptions filled and lie on the way back.

it's a racket.

My oldest brother is a pharmacist and there is no reason a glorfied store clerk should be making 450K a year, but racket makes it that way and he's lowest man on totem pole relative to makers.

 

[Darwin333]

Ever heard of Gleevev? Gleevec is used to control CML Leukemia. The same leukemia Ryan O’Neal suffers from. Gleevec is called a magic bullet. It totally stops CML Leukemia in its tracks as long as the drug is taken on a daily basis. One pill once a day.

Gleevec cost around $2300 for 30 pills, one month, when it first came out in 2003-2004.
Now the costs for one month, 30 Gleevec pills? $6800.
That is $6800 per month, every month, for life.
Who besides Ryan O’Neal can afford that?
Average life span after diagnosed with CML Leukemia without Gleevec? Three to six months. With Gleevec, a full normal life span.
Gleevec is just one example of the multiplying drug costs.
Not just rising, but doubling year after year.
Gleevec $3500 in 2010, $6500 in 2011.
Are drug costs going berserk? You tell me....
You love the current system we have?
You better pray every night that you or your child never get Leukemia.
And sure, fight against every effort by Obama to change the healthcare system.
Join the republican talking points. Keep the system just as it is.
And if you or your child should be diagnosed with CML Leukemia?
Follow that republican healthcare plan, get sick, die fast.
Because that will be your only republican healthcare plan option.

Last I checked Obama blew big Pharma during the entire healthcare debate/bill.

 

[Modelworks]

Another example big pharma punishing USA consumers is the drug provigil. I have to take provigil for narcolepsy. Provigil is a unique drug in that it doesn't cause the nervousness or accelerated heart rate that things like amphetamines do. It effects the wakefulness areas of the brain without effecting the other parts. For me it allowed me to continue to work where before I would have had to quit. The cost $10 per pill, two pills per day. I managed to get insurance to pay for a couple years and was warned that as soon as the patent rights were up that it when it went generic insurance would drop it. I thought fine , no problem.


Cephalon the maker of the drug makes huge profits from the sales of the drug because there is nothing else on the market like it. So when it was due to be a generic 5 years ago they did everything possible to keep that from happening, including buying a rival company that would have made the drug generic, and today it still is not a generic and will not be for several more years. I can't take the drug anymore due to its high cost and have to resort to amphetamines which really are not the same thing and don't work nearly as well.

A U.S. Patent 4,927,855 was granted to Lafon for modafinil in 1990. The FDA granted modafinil orphan drug status in 1993. The formulation patent expired on 30 March 2006. The particle size patent was filed by Cephalon U.S. Patent 5,618,845, covering pharmaceutical compositions of modafinil, in 1994. That patent, granted in 1997, was reissued in 2002 as RE 37,516, which provides Cephalon with patent protection for certain preparations of the drug in the United States until 2014, which is now apparently extended to April 6, 2015 after Cephalon received a six-month patent extension from the FDA.

Some competing generic pharmaceutical manufacturers applied to the FDA to market a generic form of modafinil in 2006 (the year of patent expiry of the active ingredient). At least one withdrew its application after early opposition by Cephalon based on its new patent on particle sizes (set to expire in 2015).

Cephalon made an agreement with four major generics manufacturers Teva, Barr Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy Laboratories, and Watson Pharmaceuticals between 2005-2006 to delay sales of generic modafinil in the US until April 2012 by these companies in exchange for upfront and royalty payments.

Litigation arising from these agreements is still pending including an FTC suit filed in April 2008. Apotex received regulatory approval in Canada despite a suit from Cephalon's marketing partner in Canada, Shire Pharmaceuticals.

Cephalon has sued Apotex in the US to prevent it from releasing a genericized Nuvigil. Cephalon's 2011 attempt to merge with Teva was approved by the FTC under a number of conditions, including granting generic US rights to another company.

In England, Mylan Inc. received regulatory approval to sell generic Orchid-produced modafinil in January 2010; Cephalon sued to prevent sale, but lost the patent trial in November.

 

[Ausm]

Last I checked Obama blew big Pharma during the entire healthcare debate/bill.

🙁 Fucking pissed me off too!

 

[Nebor]

My oldest brother is a pharmacist and there is no reason a glorfied store clerk should be making 450K a year, but racket makes it that way and he's lowest man on totem pole relative to makers.

He's only making $450k a year as a pharmacist? That's terrible. :whiste:

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

He's only making $450k a year as a pharmacist? That's terrible. :whiste:

Hes also lying.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

http://www1.salary.com/Pharmacist-Salary.html

Evidently his brother works 160 hours a week.

 

[alkemyst]

http://www1.salary.com/Pharmacist-Salary.html

Evidently his brother works 160 hours a week.

brojobs on the side?

 

[Darwin333]

Another example big pharma punishing USA consumers is the drug provigil. I have to take provigil for narcolepsy. Provigil is a unique drug in that it doesn't cause the nervousness or accelerated heart rate that things like amphetamines do. It effects the wakefulness areas of the brain without effecting the other parts. For me it allowed me to continue to work where before I would have had to quit. The cost $10 per pill, two pills per day. I managed to get insurance to pay for a couple years and was warned that as soon as the patent rights were up that it when it went generic insurance would drop it. I thought fine , no problem.


Cephalon the maker of the drug makes huge profits from the sales of the drug because there is nothing else on the market like it. So when it was due to be a generic 5 years ago they did everything possible to keep that from happening, including buying a rival company that would have made the drug generic, and today it still is not a generic and will not be for several more years. I can't take the drug anymore due to its high cost and have to resort to amphetamines which really are not the same thing and don't work nearly as well.

One of the guys at my office takes that and he buys it online for a tenth of the cost. Under $200 for 200X200mg, he said they are generics but work just as well. If you want me to get more info from him, for research purposes only of course, shoot me a PM.

 

[Darwin333]

http://www1.salary.com/Pharmacist-Salary.html

Evidently his brother works 160 hours a week.

Maybe he sells the good stuff himself?

 

[Darwin333]

🙁 Fucking pissed me off too!

Yup, which means we are effectively fucked regardless of which side holds power.

 

[morkinva]

I had an eye infection a few weeks ago. Same item from various sources:

Rite Aid: $50
Walgreens: $47
CVS: $48

local pharmacy chain: $13

 

[Anarchist420]

Ever heard of Gleevev? Gleevec is used to control CML Leukemia. The same leukemia Ryan O’Neal suffers from. Gleevec is called a magic bullet. It totally stops CML Leukemia in its tracks as long as the drug is taken on a daily basis. One pill once a day.

Gleevec cost around $2300 for 30 pills, one month, when it first came out in 2003-2004.
Now the costs for one month, 30 Gleevec pills? $6800.
That is $6800 per month, every month, for life.
Who besides Ryan O’Neal can afford that?
Average life span after diagnosed with CML Leukemia without Gleevec? Three to six months. With Gleevec, a full normal life span.
Gleevec is just one example of the multiplying drug costs.
Not just rising, but doubling year after year.
Gleevec $3500 in 2010, $6500 in 2011.
Are drug costs going berserk? You tell me....
You love the current system we have?
You better pray every night that you or your child never get Leukemia.
And sure, fight against every effort by Obama to change the healthcare system.
Join the republican talking points. Keep the system just as it is.
And if you or your child should be diagnosed with CML Leukemia?
Follow that republican healthcare plan, get sick, die fast.
Because that will be your only republican healthcare plan option.

They could be like $200/month if there were no government intervention in that market. I know some people don't consider the market fair, but you can't aggress against anyone by using any idea. There were no patents in this country's original supreme law and it worked great until it was illegally rescinded at the request of NE Merchants, slaveowners, and bankers.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

They could be like $200/month if there were no government intervention in that market. I know some people don't consider the market fair, but you can't aggress against anyone by using any idea. There were no patents in this country's original supreme law and it worked great until it was illegally rescinded at the request of NE Merchants, slaveowners, and bankers.

Pro tip- It would not cost $200. You are pulling that out of the air.
If it costs half a billion dollars to bring a drug to market (and it does) and for sake of argument suppose that 5,000,000 pills are sold over the sales life of the drug. Precisely how much would you have to charge to break even neglecting all other expenses including the costs of production?

 

[Capt Caveman]

They could be like $200/month if there were no government intervention in that market. I know some people don't consider the market fair, but you can't aggress against anyone by using any idea. There were no patents in this country's original supreme law and it worked great until it was illegally rescinded at the request of NE Merchants, slaveowners, and bankers.

Based on the fact you have no clue the cost to develop, manufacture, market, distribute and sell the product, you make another stupid ignorant post.

Yes, let's go back in time when people lived much shorter/painful lives due to the lack of medical innovation.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

They could be like $200/month if there were no government intervention in that market. I know some people don't consider the market fair, but you can't aggress against anyone by using any idea. There were no patents in this country's original supreme law and it worked great until it was illegally rescinded at the request of NE Merchants, slaveowners, and bankers.

If there was no government intervention the drug wouldn't exist. All the people bitching about prices need to keep that in mind. If they didn't rape us on the price of these drugs far fewer drugs would be developed.

Why the hell would a company spend hundreds of millions to develop a drug to treat a rare cancer if they can't charge out the ass for it?

 

[Anarchist420]

Pro tip- It would not cost $200. You are pulling that out of the air.
If it costs half a billion dollars to bring a drug to market (and it does) and for sake of argument suppose that 5,000,000 pills are sold over the sales life of the drug. Precisely how much would you have to charge to break even neglecting all other expenses including the costs of production?

generics can be up to 90% off.