Posted on 07/24/2017 8:13:57 PM PDT by NGC 6822
PARASITES IN US HEALTH CARE In early May my wife and I returned from a short vacation in Peru. Two weeks later I came down with severe diarrhea that has now continued unabated for six weeks. The cause has been identified as a parasite—Blastasytis Species.
This parasite is believed to be present in 23% of the American population and 100% of people in “less developed countries” (Wikipedia). Albendazole is the first line of treatment for this infection.
Albendazole tablets are sold throughout the world (outside of the US) for 1 penny to six cents each and are usually available as a non-prescription drug in any pharmacy. Inside the US the same pill is sold for $219 each (Wikipedia). After Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) approved their share of the cost, I was obliged to write a check for $649 to cover my co-pay for a 3-day supply of 12 pills, i.e. 4 pills per day. This is an experiment with no guarantee that it will be successful.
This medication has been in existence for 45 years. It is a generic medicine with an estimated one billion pills currently on the world market. However, Amenda Pharma (google it) has bought the US distribution rights, and thus they now monopolize the domestic market.
Ignoring parasites currently dining on the inside of my body, I am forced to ask myself the question, “Who are the parasites in the US Health Care System?” Is it the Trial Lawyers Assoc. or the American Medical Assoc. (AMA)? Is it the drug manufactures, or the distributers, or the insurance companies, or the politicians? Maybe the parasites are among the people themselves—the fraudulent claimers.
All I know is that I and my insurer had to pay up to 21,900 times more for pills here in the US than the amount an uninsured peasant pays for the same off-the-shelf medication in the rest of the world!
And please, no offense to the peasants—since I may become one of them soon.
If it is generic, no longer under patent, anyone can make it. Not sure how Amenda can control the market.
Exclusive distribution rights would only apply to a patented medicine.
Sorry, I got up to my you-know-what in alligators, but I kept your post in mind. So, I have come back to it before I close. I took a screen shot of your reference and I’ll look it up tomorrow. I am very grateful for your effort to research for me, and I will definitely follow-up.
Many Thanks Again and Very Best Regards
No problem, I think you got caught up in a special “one-off” kinda drug situation...kinda like an “orphan-drug/disease” situation, rather than a pharma-wide problem. See you FR-later!
the entire congress, both branches and both parties should be tarred and feathered and dragged through the streets until their limbs are ground off
they want to kill us off with obamacare and replace us with immigrants that they promised to take as part of trade deals
Minor correction, if I may:) Healthcare, health insurance & big pharma have been a well-coordinated extortion racket for the last 20-30 years. The political class (much like the mafia) became disturbed that were not getting a cut...and thus made it even worse.
Agreed and I find it very disturbing.
“However, the second you take your pills over to CVS or Walgreen to sell, the FDA will be knocking on your door with an arrest warrant and you will be spending as many years in prison as I will hosting these parasites. ILLEGAL DISTRIBUTION1”
Our company just needs to show how we know what are are selling is what it is and that it is safe.
Then FDA is ok with it.
We are assured that only by grossly overcharging for drugs can the pharmaceutical companies accrue enough to research and develop new drugs. The marvel of the thing is not that we are lied to and treated as idiots by rapacious drug companies, but that their lies are promoted and endorsed by opinion leaders and elected representatives who claim to be experts and to have our interests at heart.
It is sad that some don’t understand industry or the market and have drunk the democrat socialist Kool ade, and then accuse people who do understand of drinking it.
They don’t know they’ve fully internalized the left’s propaganda.
How does one buy the US distribution rights for a generic?
That’s like having the US distribution rights for a public domain film or book.
These are sticker prices.
When I didn’t have medical coverage through my job, I had a caremark discount via my AAA membership. I never had to produce my AAA card or caremark card at the pharmacy afterwards. Even when my annual AAA membership expired each year.
It was a “negotiated” discount pricing with no copay from Caremark or AAA coming into the pharmacy.
I have insurance (mandated that I purchase it) and even it didn’t get a prescription I was given ($110 a month) down much ($100 a month with prescription coverage insurance) but the pharmaceutical company itself offers a discount if you register online and then it is $30 a month.
The prices are all funny money. And yes US customers are being gouged. Same as when you are charged 5 for an aspirin at the hospital.
You are a hopeless moron.
RTFA! The pills only cost $650 because of the government.
The fair cost is pennies.
Kindly go away. You belong on the DUmp.
Not if the same item is available elsewhere for next to nothing.
Yep, the “repeat the untruth over and over and over enough and it becomes truth” mantra has some “truth” to it unfortunately (not to mention the new social media aspect that allows for x10,000 repeats in hours!)
Oh, but it is!
The parasites in the United States Congress are the reason for the outlandish price tag!
Why can't those worthless people repeal and replace ObamaCare????
“Not if the same item is available elsewhere for next to nothing.”
The cost is “next to nothing” because it is nothing.
“In 2013, GlaxoSmithKline donated 763 million albendazole tablets for the treatment and prevention of parasitic infections in developing countries, bringing the total to over 4 billion tablets donated since 1998.[24]”
The pills are donated to third world countries.
In other countries costs are low because they are socialist.
The pills could be very low price here if there were a market for them, like aspirin or ibuprofrin, but the disease is very rare and there is not a market.
Which means it should cost what it costs to produce the next pill.
So, maybe it's not being produced in the US because Americans do not typically contract the disease. That means, maybe it should cost a couple of bucks to cover transportation.
But not hundreds. That is a Deep State ripoff! May God damn the Deep State!
Sh' 'Nuff
Also got sympathy for those on FR who don't have nearly the disposable income but who donate regularly because they recognize their responsibility to the cause....while many who can well afford it like to carry on w/o investing themselves...
You are confused about the word monopoly. This drug is off-patent. Anyone willing to establish a manufacturing line can make it and sell it. What excludes most from doing so is the regulatory, compliance, quality, legal, manufacturing, packaging, and post-marketing reporting obligations. All that requires an army of professionals to gain and keep FDA approvals.
If you truly discover a new chemical entity and file a patent you will have about 7 years of marketing exclusivity. After that anyone can gear-up to make and sell that drug.
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