Posted on 06/19/2012 5:45:07 PM PDT by reaganator
"Soliris has been made famous by Forbes as the world’s single most expensive drug, coming in at $409,500 a year."
Interesting. Sounds more like a treatment than a ‘prescription drug’. Maybe the ‘high-priced’ averages some from including this kind of designer stuff and the ‘mean cost’ would be more realistic.
The costs must include writing patient information at 5th grade levels.
I am a big fan of expensive medicines. A very close relative of mine (details omitted for privacy) is in serious need of medical assistance that does not currently exist. This relative has time, since the issue is not immediately life-threatening, but an effective treatment (probably pharmaceutical) would provide a huge improvement in quality of life. If the drug companies did not expect to make a sufficient profit to justify both the research costs and the risk that those costs would be a total loss, who would bother doing the research? I hope these companies do the research, succeed, and make an obscene profit without Obama/Pelosi/Reid stealing their hard-earned profits from them. When they pay a 50% “windfall profits” tax and your liberal friend asks why the drug costs twice what it “should”, you’ll know the answer.
One thing to consider is the market factor. Some drugs treat very rare conditions, so there is a limited demand for them. That alone would warrant a higher price, since the cost of developing the drug surely doesn’t scale with the potential demand. The drug company would have to recoup its costs by charging a higher price to a smaller number of customers.
If they tried that, the government would slap them with a anti-competitive business practices lawsuit, and accuse them of gouging and predatory pricing.
gimme a break. this is capitalism. They charge whatever they can get away with.
They spent a night in the hospital with her, holding her and hoping she wouldn't die before morning when an experimental treatment was flown in from Chicago.
The drug made it on time and she was treated and out of the hospital in a week. It was a treatment that was developed by the drug company for a strain so rare that it had only been used about seven times.
He was very happy to pay $11,000 for the cure.
Merck needs corporate jets to research new drugs. Endless corporate douchebaggery.
It's more likely that the corporate jets are used to fly people places.
“The average drug developed by a major pharmaceutical company costs at least $4 billion, and it can be as much as $11 billion.”
Or you Could be getting a King Sized Snow Job. See pgs 15-16
http://freepdfhosting.com/d4bad152b5.pdf
“this Court finds the actions of the Defendants, upon this audience, to be detestable.”
“Annual Sales of Risperdal worldwide per annual reports of Johnson & Johnson, Inc.
1994: $0.172 Billion
1995: $0.343 Billion
1996: $0.502 Billion
1998: $0.588 Billion
1999: $0.892 Billion
2000: $1.083 Billion
2001: $1.845 Billion
2002: $2.146 Billion
2003: $2.512 Billion
2004: $3.05 Billion
2005: $3.552 Billion
2006: $4.180 Billion
2007: $4.697 Billion
2008: $1.309 Billion
2009: $1.425 Billion
2010: $1.50 Billion
Total for the period: $29.796 Billion
Testimony at trial indicated that the profit margin for sales of Risperdal was 97% or $28.90 Billion for the period of 1994-2010”
And the fact that the FDA is the Drug Companies puppet might Also have something to do with it.
http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/UserFees/PrescriptionDrugUserFee/ucm152775.htm
A 5th of FDA’s budget comes directly from drug companies through PDUFA fees.
And, that particular J&J drug is going to cost them/J&J a $2.2 Billion Bribe to the Federal DOJ in trade for the Obama DOJ foregoing their deposing of new CEO Alex Gorsky over his part in all Manner of Illegal shenanigans.
http://johnsonandtoxin.com/alex_gorsky.shtml
http://www.pharmalot.com/2012/06/jj-may-pay-2-2b-to-settle-risperdal-probes/
Then again, before you flame me as an anti business troll, you Might take a day or two to get up to speed on exactly Who and What just that 1 drug company is.
http://www.pharmalot.com/tag/johnson-johnson/
Then if you want to know more about why drugs cost so much, you’ll take a look at what the employees have to say to each other, at Any drug company.
http://www.cafepharma.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=4
The answer is R+D, supply vs demand and government interference. I feel sorry for your friend but what kind of law does he wish to pass?
You had good points. One correction: they have only 7 years to recover billions of dollars and make some profit, too.
No way!!! Really? Its a perk that the C level employees don't pay taxes for.
I picked up a horrible lung/chest infection last fall that went from being a virus to one the doc referred to as bacterial. Several meds at a cost of almost $600 did nothing so he prescribed steroids. 16 of them taken over 5 days at a cost of $3.50 - but they were only available at one of our many local pharmacies. Cured my infection almost immediately although I did have a HUGE weight gain.
Hard to understand.
If I thought, as you apparently do, that drug companies are so incredibly profitable, I would either start my own company or buy stocks in them.
Americans are being encouraged to treat access to drugs as an entitlement, even though most modern day drugs didn't even exist thirty or forty years ago. I'm embarassed to be associated with such weak thinkers.
LAWYERS
OK.
Why is he your friend?
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.