Glaxo Tries New Tack on Cheap Canadian Drugs

Look at Fortune 500 reports if you need varification. These are facts,

The average annual cost per prescription of the 50 drugs used most frequently by seniors as of January 2001: $956.00

Amount of seniors lacking drug coverage for at least part of each year: 47%

Chance that an American filing for bankruptcy last year did so because of medical expenses: 1 in 2

Percentage change last year in the profits of Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies: +35

Percentage change in the total profits of all Fortune 500 companies: –54

Mean after-tax profits for pharmaceutical companies in 2000: 18.6%

Mean after-tax profits for all other Fortune 500 companies combined: 4.9%

Amount prescription drug prices rose in between 1981 and 1999: 306%

Amount consumer price index (CPI) rose for the same time period: 99%

Amount pharmaceutical companies spend on profit: 18.6%

Amount pharmaceutical companies spend on marketing and administration: 30%

Amount pharmaceutical companies spend on research and development: 12%

Amount of new drug research and development sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal
agencies: 60%

Amount of new research the pharmaceutical industry is funding: 11%

Number of pharmaceutical lobbyists registered in Washington, DC: 600+

Number of U.S. Senators: 50

Number of U.S. Representatives: 435

Good for Glaxo. This is what happens to a socialist, price controlled system. This complex problem cannot be solved on the backs of the pharmaceutical industry alone. Americans are glad to "save" 70% on drugs, I'm sure but they are breaking the law and our Justice Department chooses to ignore it because it's a hot potato.

I would agree if Glaxo were refusing to sell to Canada as a whole in protest of that country's price controls. But that's not what Glaxo is doing: it's refusing to sell to Canadian pharmacies that sell to Americans because it wants to keep Americans isolated in a high-priced monopoly bubble.

I'm a capitalist. I believe that Americans should have the right to shop for medications in any market we choose. It may be "illegal" in your view for consumers to save money, but I don't give a crap about protecting the pharma-barons' money-grubbing, government-enforced monopoly. I'll buy my medications from wherever in the world I can get them, whether you and Glaxo like it or not.

I would agree if Glaxo were refusing to sell to Canada as a whole in protest of that country's price controls. But that's not what Glaxo is doing: it's refusing to sell to Canadian pharmacies that sell to Americans because it wants to keep Americans isolated in a high-priced monopoly bubble.

I'm a capitalist. I believe that Americans should have the right to shop for medications in any market we choose. It may be "illegal" in your view for consumers to save money, but I don't give a crap about protecting the pharma-barons' money-grubbing, government-enforced monopoly. I'll buy my medications from wherever in the world I can get them, whether you and Glaxo like it or not.

Canada puts in price controls that allow the Pharmaceutical companies to make a profit on a per-unit basis, but if everyone did that, the companies would not make any money.

People get all emotional about pharmaceuticals, so let's substitute books. Suppose that Canada said that Tom Clancy books couldn't cost more than US$10. Well, Random House would still sell novels there, because they only cost $3 or $4 to print. But if the US slapped that kind of control in place, then of course Tom Clancy wouldn't write any more books, since the royalties would be minimal.

Now, back to Pharmaceuticals. If Glaxo refused to sell in Canada, I bet the Canuck govt. would probably figure out a way for someone else to sell the same drug there. And yes, it's unfair, but there's not a lot that we can really do about it. Yes, drug companies make a lot of money, but they came up with the pharmaceuticals in the first place. And look at some of the most touted drugs in the past few years: Rogaine and Viagra. Neither one cures a life-threatening disease, but the drug companies know that it'll be very difficult for some citizens group to get price controls on these drugs for the "human interest" or whatever. If a company discovered a cure for all cancers tomorrow, you'd better believe that you'd get all kinds of people bitching that they were making money on the backs of cancer sufferers.