McCain Pushes Drug-Import Bill Sought by Obama Budget [McCain-Snowe-Dorgan-Obama]

Bloomberg | 2009-03-04 | Tom Randall

[rabscuttle385]

Link only, per FR copyright and posting policy

[Mase]

If the people who are supposed to benefit from the drugs can't afford them then why bother to do R&D?

Profits drive R&D. Yours is a silly question.

So, I guess the solution that you two, and others, see is that seniors should just go ahead and die so our drug companies can keep on with R&D for seniors(and there are other, younger people who can't afford insurance but need meds) who can't afford the drugs?

What? Do you even bother to read what you write? Seniors should go ahead and die? Good grief, Medicare and Medicaid are available to help people that can't afford their meds. Florida, where I live, is filled with seniors who can afford their meds but don't want to pay the price because they think it's someone else's responsibility to pay for them. They might not be able to eat out as many times next month or play as many games of golf. The horror!

There will always be people who cannot afford all the treatment they believe they need or may actually need. What's the answer, nationalized healthcare? Fine, but remember that countries with price controls don't produce new drugs. It just doesn't happen. About 90% of all new drugs are discovered right here in the US.

You are probably the same people who are constantly saying that free trade is a good deal for America, but this free trade you don't want.

Like all protectionists you have no idea what free trade [or free(r)] trade means. Canada agreed to an international treaty whereby American drug companies would sell them at controlled prices (and can ignore the patent protections if they do not) if they agreed not to allow the re-importation of those drugs. Canada is breaking their agreement. This is not free trade; it is an artificial market created by socialistic leeches who like benefiting from the efforts and expenditures of others. To support such actions is to support socialism.

[Mase]

So, don't sell it to them.

And allow Canada to ignore the patent protections and turn loose their generic industries? It's not as easy as you assume.

[Mase]

Rith on, granny. Give us lthose seilver bullets that take more than a decade to commercialize, at a cost of almost a billion dollars, and do it for no profit, or at a loss, because drugs are for people not for profit. It's there duty to the state, dammit!

Or, do you just expect someone else to pay for your needs? If so, you're really going to like this guy Obama.

Forget future innovations and the generations who will benefit from them. Give me mine now, at whatever I determine is an affordable cost, and screw everyone else. Nice.

[Myrddin]

My son is on Coumadin to keep his blood thin enough to work with the two artificial heart valves (mitral & aortic). He can't take generic warfarin. It screws up his PT and we end up sticking him with heparin injections for days to get his blood thin enough. It's more expensive, but it's the only thing that works right. Absent that choice, he would be room temperature.

R&D be damned? Fine. You'll sing a different tune when the doctor tells you there is not treatment for some particular problem in the future. The difference is you won't sing for very much longer. BTW, absent R&D, you wouldn't be using a computer to engage in this conversation. It is the product of R&D that has been refined to a level you can afford by mass production.

[goat granny]

spell check is your friend...Years ago when I had the farm, a “new” med, came out that was successful against a certain type of cancer. The pill for human consumption would be 50 dollars a pill. It was the same medication I used to worm my goats. Busted out laughing. I could get 2 dozen for 5.00 from a vet catalog. If I ever need that particular medication, I would know where to buy it I would get 100 ml bottle of penicillin for my animals for 6.00. How much do you pay for a shot at the doctor..bite me

[goat granny]

I am truly sorry for your son's condition..some generic’s don't work for everyone. My son also cannot take a generic statin. He needs the brand name. But that does not mean that the US should subsidize the cost of the same medications to other countries.. I am seventy and have told doctor many times that he better find a generic for what he wants me to have, or forget it...When I go to see him, he has his little computer and finds me a generic that will do the job...When you pay for your own prescriptions, you watch the cost..If there comes a time when there is no medication for what I have, so be it...
Like you I would feel different if I had small children that needed something..I am also a retired nurse, Heparin is an old medication and should not have a high cost. Sub-Q injections are done on diabetic children everyday. Heparin sub-Q helps your child, but it has been around for decades..I am glad for you. As I am glad for Insulin. Been around for decades also...Oh by the way, I could buy a box of 100 sub_Q needles (sterile of course) with syringe. for a couple of dollars for farm animals..what does it cost you? The cost is low because a farmer couldn't afford to take care of his animals if he had to pay the same price as you do for human consumption..

[Mase]

spell check is your friend

Thanks granny. I was so taken by your belief in from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs that I posted without using the checker.

The pill for human consumption would be 50 dollars a pill. It was the same medication I used to worm my goats.

That story may get you some ears and sympathy from folks who don't have a clue about much of anything, and have probably grown weary of listening to your bellyaching, but for those of us with a clue it's just a story. Thanks for sharing.

Now go have a glass of warm milk and take a nap, resting comfortably under the security blanket dear leader has provided.

[Myrddin]

Farm animals don't sue. Humans do. The consequence is extremely expensive testing programs to ensure a given drug is safe. Even so, there are bad apples in the testing process that allow unsafe drugs to market. Your veterinary drug vs drugs "tested" as safe for humans is a poor analogy. Apples and oranges. It's the testing and regulation that jacks up the costs. Absent R&D, you wouldn't have squat for the goats either.

[goat granny]

Warm Milk is not comforting. Perhaps a shot of good bourbon and a great piece of chocolate cake would be better...Good luck on believing all the garbage on the cost of R & D and how its expensive so you must pay, pay, pay for it..Canada will pay less, less, less for the same thing.Its even cheaper in Mexico...been there done that years ago.In Mexico all you need to know is a doctor that will write a prescription...For Example: (not that this is what I bought) A bottle of 10 milligram Valium was 45.00 for 90. And the store still made a profit...I asked a pharmacist recently what the cost of 30/5 mg Valium cost and it was 80 dollars.. Glad you don’t mind paying a fortune for medications. Its good for the economy...Now its on to the chocolate cake and bourbon..maybe even a nap..

[goat granny]

Since all medications are first tested on animals, my analogy is perfect..People who make a living on raising animals for fun and profit, would not accept inferior products...Sorry to tell you I could purchase the exact same penicillin that your given by your doctor. The only difference is that weight of animal has to be factored in to the dosage. The same goes for people that take their pets to the vet. He charges 4 times as much for the same thing......That's fine for your pets, but when it comes for humans, price gouging is the name of the game. Now your hitting on one of the real reasons. Lawyers sue even if the company did nothing wrong.. You said"Absent R&D you wouldn't have squat for the goats either" Your right, but why should you, a human being pay tons more for the same medication?

[Molly T.]

Well folks....get used to this type of nonsense...as in that wonderous phrase...one world order....isn’t it going to be just LOVELY...sarcasm...

[Myrddin]

Your right, but why should you, a human being pay tons more for the same medication?

Phen-Fen...valvular heart damage when weight loss was the intended objective. Vioxx (COX-2 inhibitor) withdrawn after increased heart attacks and strokes. They worked fine for many people, but a fair number developed complications and sued. Rush a product to market with inadequate testing and you get sued when a larger population of users exposes a problem. Sometimes you pay more at the register for a well tested product. Sometime you pay with your life for an inadequately tested product.

[Mase]

If warm milk won't work then this music will certainly comfort you. Good luck with national socialism. Drugs for people, not for profit!

The Nationale

[Age of Reason]

And allow Canada to ignore the patent protections and turn loose their generic industries?

If they can make it so cheap by ignoring patents, why buy it from us in the first place?

[Mase]

The treaty allows for them to ignore patent protections if they refuse to sell to them at the price controlled cost. There are other consequences for ignoring patents. The drug companies just don't roll over and give in. They have a strong influence in Congress and will lobby to protect their patents.

Drug manufacturing is a high fixed cost industry. Manufacturing overhead is significant. By selling to countries with price controls they are able to achieve economies of scale and cover some of their manufacturing costs. Even so, without the profits derived from sales to countries without price controls, new and innovative drug therapies would all but disappear.

[goat granny]

Don't know where you get I am for socialism. You do have a comprehension problem.. I just had my bourbon and chocolate cake,, your boring and uninformed. I am on to my nap.
PS drugs for people not by gouging the sick..only in the US of A

[goat granny]

Aspirin is dangerous to some people. Caused bleeding in my father and one of my son’s that took it for a broken toe. Lets ban aspirin......get a life..

[Mase]

Grab a brain granny. Price control and profit control by government = national socialism.

Your comments are similar to what I see down here in god's waiting room. "Give me mine and to hell with everyone else." It's a common refrain from folks who have no idea what they're talking about.

Granny, your comments lead me to believe that you're in nap mode 24/7.

[Age of Reason]

Why do textbook publishers also sell books outside the country for much less than it costs to buy the same book here?

And I wonder how many other products sold overseas by U.S. companies, are being subsidized by American consumers?

[Age of Reason]

without the profits derived from sales to countries without price controls, new and innovative drug therapies would all but disappear.

I suspect that many, even most, new and "innovative" drugs are merely to replace a drug whose patent is about to expire.

Perhaps to even replace it with something less effective and more costly--or even more harmful.

I suspect most truly new drugs have their origins in academic laboratories.