Posted on 05/12/2019 6:19:29 AM PDT by Galatians328
Attorneys general from more than 40 states are alleging the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers conspired to artificially inflate and manipulate prices for more than 100 different generic drugs, including treatments for diabetes, cancer, arthritis and other medical conditions
(Excerpt) Read more at huffpost.com ...
Misbehaving is when a kid throws a tantrum.
This is a ####ing crime AND it’s disgusting.
And since more than 40 states are involved, that means many are red states so it’s believable.
The generic stuff I get is from India, and they periodically recall them for having other unrelated carcinogens mixed in. The word “clean” does not exist in Asia.
Absolutely. It's ironic that generics have been thought of as the solution to high prices charged by the large pharmaceutical companies. The original pharmaceutical developers of these drugs could at least claim they were recovering R&D costs. What excuse are the generic manufacturers going to make?
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2015/09/24/cost-doxycycline-skyrockets
September 24, 2015
...The cost of doxycycline, an antibiotic routinely prescribed for treatment of Lyme disease, has skyrocketed in recent months, causing consternation among Island medical and veterinary providers as well as health care consumers who foot the bills.
...The retail price of doxycycline increased from about three cents per pill, to more than $5 per pill over the past 18 months, according to local doctors and pharmacists. The generic antibiotic is prescribed to some 1,500 patients on Martha’s Vineyard each year and is the first choice among doctors to treat most tick-borne illnesses.
https://money.cnn.com/2017/01/18/news/drug-pricing-mallinckrodt-ftc-fine/index.html
January 18, 2017
...A drug maker was accused of slowly hiking the price of a life-saving medication used to treat infants from $40 a vial to more than $34,000 a vial, and preventing other pharmaceutical firms from creating a competitive drug.
...The company, Mallinckrodt, agreed Wednesday to settle charges of anti-competitive practices by paying a $100 million fine and allow a competitor to produce a similar medication.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2017/04/18/the-billionaire-and-the-drug-price-fixing-scandal/#4bb523e3aa3b
Apr 18, 2017
...In September 2015, Satish Mehta, the billionaire chief executive of the Indian drug company Emcure Pharmaceuticals, wrote an effusive email congratulating Jeffrey Glazer, the CEO of his U.S. crown jewel, Heritage Pharmaceuticals, on a job well done. “In a short span of 4.5 years, you have taken Heritage to another level,” Mehta wrote, adding that he considered Glazer to be “an integral part of our family.”
...Within a year, however, Mehta’s family had turned dysfunctional. This past January, the 45-year-old Glazer pleaded guilty to violating U.S. antitrust law by conspiring with manufacturers to fix the prices of generic drugs. Glazer is now cooperating with federal prosecutors—and Mehta appears to be the next target in the politically charged war against price gouging.
Honest, I’m not even sure how the whole generic things works.
ANY company can make a medication after a number of years and sell it cheaper?
If it’s already been created, how is it patented?
Kind of odd, generic.
I wonder how much of the price of a Porsche is the time to design and test it and the brand name etc.
And how much a generic version (copy) would be.
But we already know from technology theft in China how it affects prices.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-09/trump-inspired-tweets-signal-more-drug-price-pressures?srnd=premium
January 9, 2019
...After ramming through New Year’s price increases, drug executives followed up this week with less-than-contrite messaging at the conference, signaling the industry’s reluctance to change in the face of constant criticism. The Trump administration wasn’t happy. On Tuesday, the president reportedly summoned advisers to meet on the issue, and on Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar launched a tweet storm to take the sector for its lack of progress.
“ANY company can make a medication after a number of years and sell it cheaper?”
Yes. Drug patents and medical device patents have a limited lifetime. For drugs it’s 20 years, and the clock starts ticking from the time of drug discovery. So, if it takes 12 years to get a drug to market, the drug will only have 8 years left to be sold under patent.
After the expiration of a drug patent, any viable generic drug manufacturer can make and market the drug, with specific requirements with regards the quality and potency of the drug. The PK of the drug (the pharmacokinetics - or how it is absorbed into the bloodstream, distributed and eliminated after dosing) has to be within a range of 80 - 120 % of the original drug. In practical terms, this means that ~80% of generics are within 5% of the strength/efficacy of the original drug.
As you mention, there have been issues with impurities.
https://medcitynews.com/2017/07/report-breaks-much-congressmen-getting-pharma-pacs/
Jul 24, 2017
...A dozen Republican committee heads and ranking Democrats on health-related panels collected $281,600 from pharma-related PACs in the first quarter, up 80 percent from what people in the same positions collected in the first quarter of 2015, the data show. Such initial donations often set the pace for a two-year election cycle, and suggest whom corporate interests are trying to cultivate in a new Congress, with implied promises of more to come, analysts say.
Lot of cash to congressional critters from the drug companies
bookmark
Thanks. I didn’t know any of that.
..As you mention, there have been issues with impurities...
I did? I didn’t even KNOW there were issues with impurities!!
You must be thinking of a more knowledgeable FReeper :)
80 to 120 percent. Interesting.
No problem. If the Republicrats don’t put the hammer down on this soon, AOC or someone like her certainly will. It’s really that simple, and they don’t get it.
Generics have been going up for some time now....used to be a small fraction of the cost, which should have brought the original prices down instead of the generics rising to keep them inflated...it’s a handshake deal with the “Big Pharma” folks...
All those BP meds the FDA recalled came out of China. Wonder if that Mesh they took off the market did too?
I had to have 3 round of Rifaximin last year, Tricare Life BALKED at a private pharmacy filling it. It had to be Military base filled. I checked the retail cost for 3 pills a day for 14 day script $1,550. About $37 a pill.
SIBO antibiotic Rifaximin
They change the shape, color and fillers, some use less of the medical component. Synthroid generic is 30% LESS hormone than the name brand. Many people react to it, lose their hair, and have ulcers in their mouths that dentist and doctors can’t explain. Maybe your ENDOCRINOLOGIST might, most won’t script the generic. Mine won’t.
https://edrugsearch.com/6-crazy-examples-of-prescription-drug-price-gouging/
October 6, 2015
...Perhaps one of the most insane prescription price increases was that made by Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO, Martin Shkreli. When he raised the price of a Daraprim pill from $13.50 to $750, (5,000% markup) he became one of the most hated men in the American and a “poster child” for Big Pharma’s insidious greed. This drug is used to treat parasitic infections in HIV, as well as pregnant women. However, he would not be the only person to increase prescription drug prices; this process is ongoing.
...VALEANT PHARMACEUTICALS INTERNATIONAL
On the same day that this pharmaceutical company bought the rights to medications, it immediately increased the cost of Nitropress by 200 percent, and the list price of Isuprel saw a 500 percent increase. What changed? Absolutely nothing! The product was made by the same people, and it was the same drug that came off of the same production line before being purchased by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.
...RODELIS THERAPEUTICS
Some companies purchase the rights to a drug with the intention of increasing the drug prices, instead of helping patients heal and cure their medical conditions. This is exactly what Rodelis Therapeutics did when it purchased the rights to cycloserine, a tuberculosis drug. It bumped the prescription drug prices from $500 per 30 capsules, to an unbelievable $10,800. Since then, the company has given the rights to the Purdue Research Foundation; however, the price for cycloserine is still double its original cost – it is now priced at $1,050 for 30 capsules.
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