Please help FR keep the doors open
Posted on 11/22/2014 11:34:59 AM PST by knak
Although Generic Drugs have been considered a cheap alternative to brand drugs, the recent price increase has triggered a Senate investigation.
Several low-price drug manufactures were questioned by members of the Congress in October, about the changes that have happened in the last 18 months, in terms of price. The Congress meeting happened as a result of several price complaints from long patients as well as pharmacists and physicians.
Some of the low-cost generic drugs’ prices have risen with up to 8,000%. The huge increase was investigated at a Senate hearing, on Thursday. It was reported that three pharmaceutical companies refused to take part at the hearing.
Although there are many forces that influence prices, like drug ingredient shortages, production slowdowns or industry consolidation, experts have yet to investigate if the price change of generic drugs can be backed up or not.
The leaders of the ongoing investigation are Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders and Maryland Rep, Elijah Cummings.
Records revealed that the average price for more than 1,200 low cost generic drugs rose by 400 percent over a period of one year (from July 2013 to July 2014), as according to Sanders’ statement. If we turn the percentages into more understandable figures, the drugs have become unaffordable for one in four Americans.
One example of a generic drug that has suffered a huge price increase is Albuterol Sulfate, a drug needed by asthma patients. The drug used to be commercialized at the price of $11 for two tablets last year. Now, the drug is currently being sold at the price of $434 for the same two tablets. Another example is Doxycycline Hyclate, an antibiotic sold in bottles. People used to be able to buy at the price of $20 in October 2013. The same bottle costs now nearly $1,849.
Senator Bernie Sanders underlined the exact problem in one of his statements, declaring:
“Drug companies have seen the opportunity to make a whole lot of money and they are seizing that opportunity. This is greed at work in the pharmaceutical industry”.
Given the fact that the investigation is still going, no one can assure the patients if the prices will lower or at least stop increasing. The price increases were determined by the Healthcare Supply Chain Association.
The biggest jump on those drugs are yet to come. I know someone who got Walmart Pharmacy drugs, and last month Walmart changed suppliers for that RA drug...it jumped 700% from one supplier to another...unbelievable.
Oh, and I think it is a deal with Big Pharma like the Insurance Companies with Zer0care....Walmart had Hillary on the BOD...not sure if she is still there but that tells you they are left.
Unlike Congressional greed.....
Possibly there are one or two other factors in play.
With limited manufacturing capacity, they can just switch over to a more profitable commodity. Then, when demand builds ,they come right back in at a higher price.I’d be surprised if farmers don’t do the same thing when they choose to plant corn or soy beans.
This is what happens when a Marxist Simpleton takes control of Americans health... You get 700% price increases for medications purchased by people with jobs and a price decrease to $0.00 for his core voter block of unemployed people.
when insurance/government is paying for something you end up with $500 hammers.
The number of hoops generic drug companies have to jump through - for understandable safety reasons - to make and distribute their drugs means that even they get pretty good margins. Successful branded drug companies make more on patented medications, but the unsuccessful ones go bust.
did Obamacare cause this too?
Isn’t doxycycline the go to drug for that enterobacteria that the kids are getting?
Or possibly central planning interference in the free market.
Corrupt politicians choosing winners and losers always leads to higher prices for consumers.
I suspect obamacare is working its magic in there somewhere.
Of course Socialists (both National and International) like Sanders will just not recognize this.
The drug companies can always just stop making these drugs. That would solve the problem.
I believe that it is likely. The rapidly rising cost of obaminsurance and the stratospheric deductibles combined with this are pricing the middle class out of access to medical care altogether. This is in keeping with the goal of reducing the middle class and submerging it into the lower class. Middle class citizens are the biggest hindrance to total government and must be eliminated. When the whole society is a great mass of bare subsistence peons and a tiny opulent class you have a proper Communist State or an Islamic one. Barely surviving people are much easier to control, especially when education has been gutted for a few generations and only the ancient ones know any history. In a Moslem state it works even better because the populace polices itself. People are always looking for Heresy and Blasphemy in their neighbors and Dishonor among their relatives. No police are required, no hangman either.
Whoever this ‘thompson’ is, he can’t construct a sentence worth a damn, and/or ‘his’ editor needs firing.
That helps to explain the 30% price increase on my generic hydrocort pills.
For all that people should be seriously investigating “medical tourism and offshore medical insurance. We are already entering a cash only medical system for the middle class because Insurance doesn’t really pay for anything for middle class folks any more if they can’t afford the deductible. It will be easier to work with doctors now and if the concierge style medical practice spreads fast enough and without being shut down by the government, will be cheap enough for the middle class because real doctors will stay in the field and on shore and be competing. Drugs will have to come from offshore, though. I can see a system where one cruises to Dominica to buy a year’s supply of a prescription.
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