The "widely used, cheap and safe" drug is not nearly as profitable as the prescription psoriasis or ED pill that you can hawk direct to consumers on TV for a hundred bucks a pill.
So the drug companies stop making them.
Posted on 01/29/2016 12:23:32 PM PST by Nachum
This is a government caused phenomenon. Period.
A lot of pharmaceutical companies are offshoring their operations (and jobs) to India and China.
The "widely used, cheap and safe" drug is not nearly as profitable as the prescription psoriasis or ED pill that you can hawk direct to consumers on TV for a hundred bucks a pill.
So the drug companies stop making them.
Government’s single-payer plan. What do you get medically and when? They say it will save money, HOW will it save? By not giving people what they need, of course and they keep your money. Fantastic!
Not just private enterprise, many of our drugs are coming from overseas, and don’t meet FDA standards, and are being held up in importation too.
We have a hospital here in Memphis that does not even provide pillows. Staffing shortages, horrid food. Techs poorly trained, doctors not on the floor when they are doing stress test with a full waiting room. No one calls the patients back with test results or even bothers to send them out at the very least. But they sure want paid.
Another part of the reason are what we call ‘orphaned diseases’ that only effect a small percentage of the population.
Same goes with doctors. A OB/GYN is only interested in those of child bearing age. Let a woman reach 50 and need them only once a year find one is very hard.
Then you have the type of insurance your have. We are Medicare and Tricare Life (Ret. Over 65 Military) and are finding specialist hard to find that will take what he/we paid into and earned with 20 years of being under paid and over deployed.
I am a pharmacist in a teaching hospital. The article in the NY Times is surprisingly accurate.
What the article did not really cover is the fact with only rare exceptions drug shortages are driven by government controls and interventions relative to price and standards of manufacturing.
1. If they can not sell it at a profit they will not make it. If the government will get out of the way they can sell it at a profit.
2. This is the big one. Their are many companies manufacturing drugs that use substandard processes. I would not want to put their drugs in my vein nor would I want to put their drugs in the veins of my patients.
However, the rules and regs on the manufacturers have become byzantine and complex beyond belief. I worked part time at a facility that manufactured and repackage bulk drugs that were in short supply. I know without any doubt their product was of the highest standard. We had the “GRANDMOTHER RULE.” Any person from technician to pharmacist to management that was involved with the production of the drug could invoke the “Grandmother Rule.” If they suspected anything wrong with the production the one question was, “would you give this to your grandmother?” I without any hesitation would take any product this company made. I have seen the “grandmother rule” invoked. Many tens of thousands of dollars of product were destroyed. This was and is a damn good company.
They were shut down for several months due to paper work. Nothing was wrong with their product and they had done their best to comply with the insane paper work requirements.
If we are short on a drug product, do not blame the manufactures. Blame the government!
You are correct see my post #28 and I do know what I am talking about.
The Hematologist uses a portal, so far my test results have not shown up, just the visit summary. Still have 1 test hanging out there, and was told a month ago it would be in in 3 weeks. Well we are at the end of week 4 and still no test results or a phone call.
And oh, joy I get to go through the Wet Clinic at the Eye College for Dry Eyes created by the super drying agent meds I must take. They most likely will recommend Restasis, only problem is 1 it has nasty side effects, 2 heart arthrimias, 3 not to be used in patients with auto immunes. I meet all three. No one will say that the first cataract implant surgeon damaged the nerves or used the wrong lens in the left eye, that eye has burned for 15 years and the vision has always been blurry, and not one mention of Dry Eye. Have no issue with the second cataract surgery right eye, different and higher quality surgeon.
Now if Medicare/Tricare Life would allow patients to UP grade out of their own pockets the cost beyond a Mono lens to correct astigmatism it would be nice. I needed Toric Lenses not Mono.
I have some of the Voltran right here, brought to me by a friend in Germany. Best stuff ever.
If Medicare were allowed to negotiate drug prices with worldwide, the competition’d bring the prices down...
Ed
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.