[The Antiyuppie]

“The ‘price gouging’ army will be here shortly to perform a collective faint.”

For that kind of money, I want to look like and be as strong as 22 year old Arnold Swartzenegger, add 40 points to my IQ, and live healthy and youthful until I’m 150.

This isn’t really a drug, its a treatment, customized... but the question remains, why is it that the prices never go down on ANY DRUG with process improvements and volume?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

why is it that the prices never go down on ANY DRUG with process improvements and volume?

They do.

Next question?

[Dr. Sivana]

This isn’t really a drug, its a treatment, customized... but the question remains, why is it that the prices never go down on ANY DRUG with process improvements and volume?

They do. It just takes 17 years for the patents to expire. If the alternative is that the treatment doesn't get invented at all, I'm good with it. We had to make a choice for a family member on a hideously expensive treatment, and a much less expensive one that was 80% as good. We opted for the less expensive one. There is some elasticity even with pharmaceuticals.

[Lou L]

why is it that the prices never go down on ANY DRUG with process improvements and volume?

Yes, they do. But keep in mind, pharma companies don't just make drugs, ship them out the door, and then forget about them. They must still file regular reports to numerous regulatory agencies, they continue to conduct clinical trials , stability and packaging studies, and they maintain help desks 24/7 in the event a patient, pharmacist or doctor experiences an adverse event, or has a prescribing question.

In the event a drug is counterfeited or its integrity question in some manner, the pharma company may have to assay samples to determine the composition, or even participate in a legal investigation.

So to answer your question, a pharma company may learn over time, how to manufacture their products more efficiently. That's a given. But the operating costs rarely ever become smaller over time.

[rollo tomasi]

Make the process cheaper to bring a drug/new procedure to market.

Also, stop taking drugs/procedures off the market that has a 1/10,000 (In a lot of cases 100,000) incidental circumstances. Also have you ever heard of personnel injury attorneys and subsidizing other countries?

One drug to market is an expensive journey while covering the cost of the ones that “fail”. This is a business remember. Necessity + Profit = risks taken. Take profit out and risk goes with that (Necessity will always be there but not properly funded because its EXPENSIVE). Chemists and molecular genetic scientist won't work for cheap either.