Why are drugs cheaper in Canada (and elsewhere)?

My Brain

[maui_hawaii]

but you forgot that hidden element called "Corporate Welfare".

Can you give examples of this? I mean real ones.

[DMCA]

Check to see how much the major research hospitals receive for the Government for research and how much the NIH spends on research. I am not saying that the majority of the research is publicy funded, however I am saying that sometimes drug companies get research for cents on the dollar or cheaper.

About advertising. I found this chart BUT I DO NOT KNOW HOW ACCURATE IT IS. I am posting it for purposes of debate. I in no way vouch for its accuracy.


http://www.actupny.org/reports/drugcosts.html#chart_one

I also ran a google search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&c2coff=1&q=drug+companies+spending+advertising+research&spell=1
And most of the results that I looked at seam to show that drug companies spend 50-100% more on advertising than R&D.

[maui_hawaii]

If 1,000,000 people use the drug worldwide, but only 100,000 pay the development cost...for those 100,000 the cost will be approximately $10,000 per head.

[maui_hawaii]

Good post. Let me look at it.

[marktwain]

Your analysis is essentially correct, although, of course, it ignores that much of the enormous cost of bringing the drug to market is because of hugely inefficient regulation by the FDA, with hardly any cost to benefit concerns.

As for research subsidized by Universities, most of them have programs that patent drugs invented there and use them to enrich their own pockets. Consider Warfarin and the University of Wisconsin as an example.

[DMCA]

Where are you getting the 1 Billion figure from?

[eastforker]

My wife got a subscription for an antibiotic that cost $100 , we got one for our dog and got the EXACT same one from the vet for $15.

[motherof 3]

On a program about this they said that a new drug had not been developed in Canada for forty years. Do they just sit around and wait for us to do it?

[maui_hawaii]

I am using a nice round number to show process of my point, not actual numbers...

[eastforker]

My wife got a subscription for an antibiotic that cost $100 , we got one for our dog and got the EXACT same one from the vet for $15.

[doc30]

The author fails to mention that marketing costs for a new drug can easily be greater than the R&D costs. That's one reason why drug advertising is banned in Canada. THe other reason is that the Canadian government does not want a glut of patients going to their doctors to get a prescription as a response to the advertising. Business would be up for doctors and that would make the government have to pay more for healthcare. Free speech is another victim of socialism in Canada.

[Ron in Acreage]

You're right. Maui has a lot of babble. The Canadian government buys the drugs for $1 and in turn sells them to their citizens for 60 cents. Here in the US the drug companies sell us their drugs for $1 and we pay $1.

[maui_hawaii]

Its friggin expensive to develop drugs. They don't have the for profit motives we have, hence no one invests in it.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Very good. But you left out the part about the patent expiring in 7 years. That's all the time the manufacturer gets to recover their costs and any profit. After that, anybody gets the right to manufacture the drug with NO R&D costs.

[maui_hawaii]

I am the author :o)

I am actually posting this to LEARN what others may know that I don't...

[lainde]

You are exactly right. There have been no other pipelines of major drugs except with US pharmaceutical companies. The last time they were threatened (by Hillarycare) they cut back on R&D and we had no new antibiotics for YEARS! Antibiotics called cephaloporins were big at that time and then for YEARS there was nothing major until the quinolones were developed (drugs like Cipro). I ask you, what major drugs come from Canada or any other socilaist country? But you are right, I don't understand why they should get cheap drugs and we subsidize R&D and the Canadian patients.

[maui_hawaii]

If you know something I don't please share. Thats the point of the discussion.

I may be babbling, but at least I am going for content, whether is mine or someone else's.

[DMCA]

In other words you made it up. That doesn't help you make your point, it makes it look like you are trying to hide something.

ELI LILLY AND COMPANY SEC 10-Q
http://www.edgar-online.com/bin/edgardoc/finSys_main.asp?dcn=0000950137-03-005842&nad=

Scroll down to R&D / Ad. E&D is about 1/2 of Ad.

[MamaDearest]

I used to work for a company that was owned by a very well known pharmaceutical company. Millions were invested in this company that manufactured an additive used to increase paper brightness. One sales meeting was in St. Lucia (tax deductible no doubt). Add the cost for plants built all over the country. They had financial interest in a major cosmetics company. They divested their interest in the cosmetics and paper additive companies, which prevented association with the well-known pharmeceutical name. Nothing preventing key personnel from being on the board of directors of offshoot companies. No, I believe it is manufacture cheap and sell high because they are unchallenged and it is highly profitable at our expense.