Couldn’t agree more.
Will Big Pharma drop their US prices once Trump succeeds in ending overseas price controls?
I’ll believe it when I see it.
I’m not one for expanding government, but perhaps some program should be setup to administer valium or prozac to the entire leftist population. At least to provide relief to the right.
” Drugs are too expensive ... compared with what..”
Stopped reading right there. The author is an idiot. There is simply no way in hell, for any reason or any circumstance where I as an American should pay more than anyone else in the world. Period. Anybody who has an issue or objection to that? May then and their loved ones die of some horrible disease. Screw them.
President Trump needs to bring the manufacturing of prescription drugs including the ingredients of brand-name drugs and generics back into the USA where they can be inspected properly.
“...The Zhejiang HuaHai Pharmaceutical company in Linhai, China had apparently sold contaminated valsartan to a number of drug manufacturers. China now supplies the world with many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Drug companies in many other countries buy the these APIs, add “inactive” ingredients like binders and fillers and create finished pills. They are then shipped all over the world...”
“On July 5, 2018, the European Medicines Agency announced its concerns about some of the generic valsartan medicines being sold across Europe. By the next day it was announced that 22 countries were recalling certain generic valsartan blood pressure pills. Some contained just valsartan. Others had the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) as an added ingredient. The manufacturers involved included Dexcel Pharma and Accord Healthcare...”
“Which brings us to the whole question of Chinese drug manufacturing. As far as we can tell, there has been no announcement about tariffs on medicines made in China or India. Most Americans would be amazed to learn that a huge number of our over-the-counter and prescription medicines are made in those two countries...”
Buyer beware!!
There is another thing that government could do to reduce the costs of R&D and bringing a drug to market in the USA. They could update the regulatory process and outsource the validation and certifications of the process from development through testing and trials.
I’ve worked in the big Pharma industry. The regulatory restrictions and requirements are extremely expensive. If there are animals (test subjects) involved, It gets extremely complicated and armies of administrators and VERY expensive facilities are required.
Then folks need to know, that there are lots of lines of cures being researched and it takes several years before they know whether something will be successful. Imagine spending tens of millions of dollars on 6 potential medicines. After 8 to 12 years, one of those proves successful, passes trials and is approved for sale. The other 5 don’t work. They have a patent for what, a few years?
Their drug prices reflect what they are trying to both recoup in R&D to bring the drug to market, the other failed R&D, investment in the future and some profit. The government regulations combined with price controls limits their ability to cover the inflated costs in the sales of their inventions and products.
It is certainly maddening what drugs can cost. But I learned that the general public really does not understand the complicated business that is Pharmaceutical development and production.
https://www.healthwarehouse.com
Healthwarehouse.com is a VIPPS accredited pharmacy based in Florence, Kentucky
what is missing is the obvious elephant in the room - the pharms that make the product AGREE to the price control. Which they wouldn't if they were actually taking a loss. Which makes countries that don't have price controls their cash cows. For instance, an albuterol inhaler in the US runs $70 otc cash. From Canada, less than $20. It contains 20mg of albuterol. Is albuterol really that expensive? nope. The cost is pennies or fractions on a billion unit run. Why do they charge $70 in the US? Because they can.
Seldom mentioned is that consumers can be helped by easing the price of access to prescription drugs by making more of them nonprescription and by creating a mechanism to avoid the need to see a doctor to get a script. And the Trump administration is setting out to do just that.