Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

Senator Chuck Grassley may be the singularly most important reason why the GOP gained seats in the U.S. Senate last November. Democrats and their base were unhinged during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Sen. Grassley was calm and measured. The Left was disrespectful and angry. He was kind to all of the witnesses and offered them every courtesy. After it became clear that a couple of them had misled the committee, he did his duty by referring their testimony over to the DOJ for possible prosecution.

Americans were paying attention. They saw through the media maelstrom. Without raising his voice, the senior Senator from Iowa transcended the opponents of now Justice Kavanaugh and pushed him across the finish line. Three Democrat incumbent Senators went down to defeat after turning their backs to common sense and hitching themselves to the anchor of the unhinged Left.

Having been an observer of Chuck Grassley for his entire political career, permit a couple of observations. First, he has what we call out here in fly over country, horse sense. He is at his core a decent man. He also has amazing political instincts. He has an innate sense of what average Americans are concerned about.

Recently, the Harvard School of Public Health released results of a large national survey on health concerns. The single most significant result from the poll was that 92% of all respondents said that lowering the cost of prescription drugs was “extremely important.” Senator Grassley didn’t need to see the poll. He travels to all 99 Iowa counties every year. The Iowa farmer can feel it in his bones when a storm is brewing.

The new Chairman of the powerful Finance Committee had already begun to unveil a strategy to deal with the matter. First, he announced that he would introduce legislation with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) that would allow Americans to import drugs from Canada for personal use. North of the border pharmaceuticals cost 40-400% less. When we consider that we spent over $500 Billion on Rx drugs last year, this alone could save tens of billions. It will also serve to illustrate just what the Canadian government actually does to protect their citizens from predatory drug pricing. The drug lobby does a marvelous job of distorting the facts. Debate around this legislation will bring the truth to the front.

Grassley also signaled that he would revive two other nonpartisan proposals. The first is the CREATES Act. It would crack down on anticompetitive practices that many drug companies employ to stymie the production of generics. The second is a bill to ban the practice of “pay-for-delay.” Pharma companies actually pay generic manufacturers to delay production of off-patent drugs. Frankly, this should have been stopped by existing antitrust laws long ago.

The stories of abuse are now legend. Dr. Robert Pearl, writing in Forbes last September illustrated the greed exhibited by the industry. He used the CEO of Nostrum Laboratories to make his point. Nostrum recently raised the U.S. price of their antibiotic nitrofurantoin from $474.75 to $2,392. It was developed back in 1953 and should have gone off patent during the Nixon era.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Nirmal Mulye Nostrum chief executive, said “I think it is a moral requirement to…sell the product for the highest price.”

Mr Mulye compared pricing decisions to that of selling “a painting for half a billion dollars”. He was “in this business to make money”. Of course, all businesses are in business to make money. But, none enjoy the monopolistic protections granted to the pharmaceutical industry here in the United States.

Note: a three day supply of nitrofurantoin tablets in Alberta sells for $15 Canadian.

The American system has been allowed to metastasize into an unaffordable monster. Our political leaders have allowed it. It is long past time for Americans to demand that they change it. This is not a matter of right versus left. It is a matter of right versus wrong. It is simply wrong for our government to allow sick Americans to be held hostage to the predatory prices imposed by these government protected monopolies.

Once again, Senator Chuck Grassley is showing good horse sense. If his colleagues won’t lead or follow, they may well get run over.

” North of the border pharmaceuticals cost 40-400% less.”

That’s right folks — up here drug companies PAY US BIG BUCKS to take their pharmaceuticals. Say you spend $200/month on a particular drug. That same drug might cost us Canucks as much as $120/month — or the drug company might PAY us as much as $600/month to take it off their hands. So far, the best I’ve been able to manage is a return of 200%, on a prescription that costs $350/mo in the USA. Now, if I could just get a prescription for an expensive (to you American suckers) drug @ 400% off, I’d have it made.

Senator Chuck Grassley may be the singularly most important reason why the GOP gained seats in the U.S. Senate last November. Democrats and their base were unhinged during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Sen. Grassley was calm and measured. The Left was disrespectful and angry. He was kind to all of the witnesses and offered them every courtesy. After it became clear that a couple of them had misled the committee, he did his duty by referring their testimony over to the DOJ for possible prosecution. Americans were paying attention. They saw through the media maelstrom. Without raising his voice, the senior Senator from Iowa transcended the opponents of now Justice Kavanaugh and pushed him across the finish line. Three Democrat incumbent Senators went down to defeat after turning their backs to common sense and hitching themselves to the anchor of the unhinged Left.

Here’s a little helpful information for myFReepers:

Northwestpharmacy.com. it was recommended to me by my doctor several years ago and it’s saved me a great deal of money. The major catch is that you can’t get anything in a hurry. But if you are on anything regular it’s great.

It is a completely legitimate Pharmacy, they require prescriptions they follow up with you they will get prescriptions directly from your doctor Etc.

I don’t take much, but for example synthroid for my thyroid is about one-third the cost of here in the US. That’s the brand name. Also for example Nasonex is about one-third or less than it is here.

Some of the topical corticosteroids sold here are hideously expensive, criminally so. A lot of those can be purchased there for a huge amount less.

There is a flat $10 shipping fee per order, doesn’t matter how many prescriptions are in that order.

“The new Chairman of the powerful Finance Committee had already begun to unveil a strategy to deal with the matter. First, he announced that he would introduce legislation with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) that would allow Americans to import drugs from Canada for personal use. North of the border pharmaceuticals cost 40-400% less.”

And just who says we can’t do that at present? I see ads every day for mail order pharmaceuticals from Canadian pharmacies. Beyond that, it would seem that a “public shaming” not unlike the hearings where the Big Tobacco CEOs had their balls twisted in public, needs to be done with the Big Pharma CEOs. Make them explain why their drugs are orders of magnitude cheaper in Canada. Tell them that unless their drugs are at parity between the two companies, that anti-trust litigation will be forthcoming immediately. The ONLY reason this disparity exists is because our Senators and Representatives are in the pockets of the drug companies. When you compare the impact of drug costs to Americans to the trade imbalance with China, I can assure you which one will win.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.