Posted on 03/07/2018 9:59:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind
HERE'S A HUGELY winning issue for President Donald Trump that would deal with a gross trading abuse and simultaneously advance his goal of reducing the prices of prescription drugs: Insist that foreign buyers of American pharmaceuticals--almost without exception government agencies--pay their fair share of the research and development costs of these medicines. Currently, Americans are subsidizing overseas users of our drugs.
Here's how that works. The average price of successfully bringing a new medicine to market in the U.S. is about $2.4 billion. The entire approval process takes some 12 years before a drug receives its final green light. The expenses include all the would-be medicines that fail to make it out of the research labs or falter during the Food & Drug Administration's expensive, time-consuming clinical trials.
Pharmaceutical companies get 20-year patents for their drugs, which means they really have about 8 years of monopoly power (20 years for the patent minus the 12 years for clearing all the hurdles before a particular prescription can actually be sold). No wonder the initial price for a new drug is sky-high, even though the actual manufacturing cost per pill is minuscule. (Ideally, when a drug goes "off-patent," imitators rapidly bring copies, called generics, to market, slashing the price. Unfortunately, FDA regulations have gummed up this process. New FDA head Dr. Scott Gottlieb has been removing obstacles, which is why the rate of drug approvals has more than doubled.)
When a pharmaceutical company sells a new drug overseas, buyers demand a price that's a fraction of what American customers pay. The demand is more in line with a gangsteresque "We'll make you an offer you can't refuse" process than normal business bargaining. The implicit--and sometimes explicit--threat is that if a company doesn't cave the country will allow a knockoff of the medication
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Lowering the prices on goods Americans pay for does not seem to be a goal of the trade war. Maybe some other time.
No kidding
We are getting buggered in the bum over this
I bought a newfangled calcium channel blocker last month called Renexa
1200 bucks for one month
My insurance paid half...which means all premium holders did
It’s ridiculous
Trump addressed improving approval time in his election run
It was a bullet point
This is one on Trump’s campaign promises, hopefully he will get around to it. It’s a ridiculous system to give the world cheap drugs subsidized by Americans.
I’d be interested in the dose and number needed for a months supply - here in Switzerland we have a similar problem, with similar causes (think Roche, Norvartis).
We get KILLED in drug prices but other countries get them at a discount?
nice.
Switzerland is America’s only rival medical care wise
I used to go to Zurich for biz 30 years ago and my Fortis Benefits insurance was applicable in some cases in Switzerland too
Switzerland citizens are second in spending on healthcare to us
The last holdouts from total nationalization
Swiss are neat and clean...and perfectionists
It’s culture I guess
My Renexa is two 1000 mg pills each morning and night
It might be cheaper for you on a yearly basis to fly to Europe once a year to get your prescription filled and pay out of pocket.
Good that someone with a public forum is finally saying that. Keep exposing the little details of international business and we'll find many more areas where the US consumer and worker is getting screwed with government and corporate approval.
A market-based, auction-style option from my health care cost coverage proposal that forces drug makers to compete on price:
PLAN OFFER/DRUG MAKER ACCEPTANCE PLAN
1. The plan sponsor must decide on a drug-only plan drug_age_factor dollar multiplier between $5 and $9
[If a dollar multiplier of $8 is chosen, a 64-year old would have a drug-only premium of $168.80/month (i.e. $8*21.1/month).]
2. The plan sponsor must then draw up a proposed list of drugs and their apparent drug makers and list the percentage of premiums that will go to the maker of each drug for an all-the-doctors prescribe supply with the recommended drug co-pay ..., or a drug plan set lower co-pay amount.
3. The initial acceptance period must be open for at least 14 days.
4. If accepted, the drugs will be locked into the plan formulary for the entire term of the plan (and its policies).
5. The plan sponsor must then draw up another list of drugs and their apparent drug makers and list the percentage of premiums that will go to the maker each drug for an all-the-doctors prescribe supply with the recommended drug co-pay above, or a drug plan set lower co-pay amount.
6. The subsequent round acceptance period must be open for at least 14 days.
7. If accepted, the subsequent round drugs will be locked into the plan formulary for the entire term of the plan (and its policies).
8. Steps 5 through 7 may be repeated as often as desired by the plan sponsor, as may be possible
9. The premium amounts would be reduced by the total percentage unallocated and the participating drug maker percentages raised to equal 100%.
[If a dollar multiplier of $8 was chosen and 4% of possible premiums remained unallocated, a 64-year old would have a drug-only premium of $162.05/month.]
Plan sponsors may set percentages to be split between two or more drugs based on their prescription volume (and other plan sponsor rules) and subject to acceptance by more than one drug maker.
No federal subsidy for a drug maker acceptance plan shall be issued for a person unless:
a. the plan was purchased by a care plan on the person’s behalf, or
b. the person’s doctor/physician assistant/nurse practitioner or an RN employed by the person’s state approved enrollment, in the manner the Secretary of HHS shall specify.
[Coverage under a drug maker acceptance plan might be far less than of a Medicare Part D type plan.]
[There would be no appeals or ‘insurer’ prior authorizations under these bulk purchasing plans. All ‘insurer’ premium money would already be fully allocated.]
[Some drug makers may require prior authorizations if their drug is in short supply.]
[A patient in need of a drug not in their plan might go to CVS, Walgreens, the Federal Drug Marketplace or directly to a drug maker patient assistance website/phone line.]
Drug plans may offer locked-in access to [Part B cancer] drugs with percentage discounts earned by monthly premium payment off [my] Federal Drug Marketplace level pricing, at the patient’s lowest contracted drug supplier-set multiplier, good for eight years from the start of the premium month.
Drugs in FDA Phase III trials may be included in monthly percentage discount programs, using up to 10% of the plan premiums.
[This is to allow drug developers to get income for a drug in development and for plan buyers to buy potential discounts for drugs in development.]
[If a plan buyer bought 24 months of 2% discounts and 12 months of 1.5% discounts, a $4,000/year Federal Drug Marketplace level priced drug would only cost the plan buyer $1,360/year upon FDA approval.]
Drug makers shall track all their monthly percentage discounts by the name of the covered person (and the taxpayer ID) associated with the policy.
[For example: If you had sixty premium months of 1% discounts and your drug would normally cost you $14/day, you would pay $5.60/day for the drug.]
Americans refuse to accept it, but we are simply being robbed blind.
Steve Forbes get it better than almost anyone else these days.
Nevertheless, the REAL antidote to this malignant disease is KILLING THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL FDA. The Constitution does not delegate any power to the feds to regulate our food and drugs.
The FDA is unconstitutional and does more harm than good which is true of all the unconstitutional 80% portion of the feds.
True
Unless I go to Paris or Milan where wifey would bankrupt me
On new drugs though like this one they often just sell it here with our huge market. At exorbitant costs first and after recoup got foreign cheap
Renexa is really new I doubt it’s in Liberia or East Timor just yet
And sadly like most anti angina dope if you take it steady it loses efficacy fast
That’s true that’s about a third what I pay
The problem is with state law/PPACA mandates that requires payors to pay for FDA-approved drugs regardless of price.
If Aetna was required by law to buy my house, the price would be very high indeed.
If coverage providers didn’t have to cover drug X, the manufacturer of drug X would have to set a reasonable price for it.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 gives Congress the power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes..."
My theory is that the drug companies have a deal with the insurance companies and if the cost is 1200, then they sell it to the insurance company for 600. Therefore you pay 100% and your “insurance” pays ZERO.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I’ll bet I’m right or close to right.
And I’ll bet that 0vomitcare and its cheerleaders are in on the spoils of this deal.
That's a very complicated regulatory scheme, which guarantees black markets, heavy political interference, big Pharm. cronyism and influence peddling, and corruption.
How about just allowing Americans to buy the drugs from wherever they are cheapest? If Merck wants to sell a drug in Canada for 1/5th the USA price, let Americans buy it there.
“Pharmaceutical companies get 20-year patents for their drugs, which means they really have about 8 years of monopoly power (20 years for the patent minus the 12 years for clearing all the hurdles”
Patent terms are extendable under 35 USC 156 for US government regulatory hurdles.
A six-month patent extension is also given for testing on young folks.
Generic biologicals (as opposed to chemical factory drugs)can only be made after the initial patent ends and have to clear all the hurdles after the patent term before marketing can begin. The drug makers often restrict the supply of their drug to block the FDA-required comparative testing.
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