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To: Sub-Driver
"making it easier to buy prescription drugs from other countries"

I always find it amusing that people who are otherwise free traders don't want free trade when it applies to importation of prescription drugs. The argument that U.S. citizens must pay more than citizens of other countries for prescription drugs because the drug companies need the extra money for research and development is downright ludicrous. If the drug companies need more money, than everyone should have to pay more, not just U.S. citizens. Why should we subsidize drug prices for the likes of Canada? Government control of free trade for prescription drugs, with the goal of keeping prices high only for U.S. citizens, is a liberal policy if I've ever seen one. That such a policy is supported by Republicans, all for the glory of multinational corporations, is a good indication of why the voters turned against them.
29 posted on 01/02/2007 1:22:43 PM PST by Prokopton
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To: Prokopton
The argument that U.S. citizens must pay more than citizens of other countries for prescription drugs because the drug companies need the extra money for research and development is downright ludicrous. If the drug companies need more money, than everyone should have to pay more, not just U.S. citizens. Why should we subsidize drug prices for the likes of Canada?

Are you deliberately mischaracterizing the argument or are you simply misinformed on the issue?

The reason for price discrimination (for example, the sale of prescription drugs at different prices in different markets) is often very simple and also very understandable. Let's say for example, that you own the patent for a new drug that will cure AIDS. You have spent millions in R&D, testing, wining and dining FDA officials so that the approval process takes only years instead of decades, and also have production costs to consider. You want to make a reasonable return on your investment, and based on supply and demand the market would price your drug at $500 for a 30 day supply of the drug, with most AIDS patients needing the drug for 90 days. Most insurance companies in the US decide to include the drug in their prescription plans with varying levels of co-payment requirements, so you will have no problem selling your new drug in the US. However, Canada and other socialized medicine countries demand that you sell the drug to their socialized medicine programs at a cost of $75 per 30-day supply. This will just about cover your variable costs for whatever quantities you sell to them, based on your ability to sell your domestic supply at the market price, but if you had to sell all your production at the lower Canadian price you would never recoup your investment.

In a perfect world you could tell Canada and the other socialist countries to forget it -- if they want your new wonder drug they will have to pay the market price for it. But we live in an imperfect world in which the Canadian government brazenly threatens you that if you don't sell your new wonder drug to them at their demanded price they will subsidize a Canadian firm in stealing your intellectual property and producing their own generic version of your drug (perhaps not quite the same as yours and perhaps not quite as effective, but close enough that they can get away with selling it -- probably with your own brand name stamped on it) for production and distribution not only in Canada, but also in other markets where you would be selling your drug at the market price. Oh, and by the way, they will do this not only to your new wonder drug but also with your other products as well.

So, in order to protect your investment, you produce the drugs for the Canadians and other socialist health care systems and sell to those countries at the lower price. However, those sales are for distribution within those socialized medicine programs only and not for export to other markets. It is an unfortunate reality that to protect their intellectual property pharmaceutical companies have to subsidize the socialist healthcare systems of other countries. But if we are going to argue that we should import the "cheaper" prescription drugs of these socialized medicin programs into this country, then we might as well go all out and adopt socialized hillarycare across the board. That will help solve the social security problem as more and more of our people will be dying of variour illnesses at earlier ages that they would otherwise have survived.

38 posted on 01/02/2007 3:14:17 PM PST by VRWCmember
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