Posted on 02/11/2019 2:15:54 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
After President Trump’s State of the Union Address, there seems to have emerged one common thread that is uniting the two parties. Both agree that the cost of prescription drugs is far too high in the United States. Trump mentioned it in his speech, and the theme has been invoked in countless post-speech interviews by elected Democrats.
America spends far more per capita on healthcare than other developed nations, and yet drug prices here dwarf those in other countries. In one analysis carried out by Reuters, researchers found that top-selling drugs in the U.S. cost roughly triple what their counterparts in the U.K. cost. There is clearly some sort of market failure here.
However, this failure is not because of too little government intervention. As is usually the case, the involvement of government bureaucrats has stifled competition and led to extraordinarily high prices for American patients and caregivers.
One prime way they do this is to pick winners and losers by denying generic drug manufacturers market access. Generic drugs - or biosimilars - contain very similar ingredients to brand name drugs and mirror their effects and intended usage. Generics are allowed market access after the patent on the original brand name drug has expired.
Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies game this system to prevent their generic competitor from ever being able to get to market. Some companies will patent their safety protocols right before the patent on their drug expires. This prevents generic competitors from using these safety protocols for their drugs, and they then cannot get approval from the Food and Drug administration (FDA). Despite the drug patent expiring, they still have an effective government-sanctioned monopoly.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
No, but through executive authority he has the ability to make Big Pharma’s life really, really unpleasant if they won’t play ball with him.
Imported non Generic drugs would change everything if congress has not interfered and made it illegal.
I was in central America last month. Drug prices are cheap and no doctors note required (that’s a terrible idea). I don’t 100 percent understand the economic realities behind this. But we citizens of the U.S. are subsidizing the world.
A big part of the cost is the litigation insurance. Most countries don’t have a horde of slip and fall lawyers just waiting to get class actions rolling.
Drug costs here in the US are due to the cost of developing these drugs. If you make the drugs cheaper by government decree, then the incentive to develop new drugs goes out the window. Say goodbye to new drugs.
It’s called leverage, not decree.
Claimed the Pharma executive.....
The question is why are the Drugs cheaper overseas? It costs the same to develop the Drugs no matter where they are sold.
Use the Drugs, pay the Piper.
Doesn’t anyone ask themselves why there hasn’t been a cure for any disease in the last 100 years?
There are a lot of drugs that should be able without a prescription. I can get numerous drugs when I travel to India without a prescription for dirt cheap prices. Drug pressure medication or cholesterol medicine shouldn’t need a prescription for example.
No Daniel Savickas, President Trump never said drug prices could be reduced by decree.
We subsidize the R& D with higher costs here in the US. They do not develop as many overseas.
Sure they can be
Allow imports of same drugs from markets where crony-capitalist big Pharma sells it much cheaper, widen FDA approvals of generics, quicken approvals of new drugs, etc...
While I agree, since most people have their insurance paid for by someone else, more or less, they would cry bloody murder if it had to be straight out of pocket.
I mention Israel, because the last two or three times I got a prescription (for Amoxicillin or “Tylenol III”), the code number on the pills indicated Israel as the source. Not sure I trust India as much.
Obama made a deal with Big Pharma to keep high prices in exchange for their support and dollars to get Obamacare passed. I have no sympathy for the drug companies. Screw them.
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