Free Republic

Airyn De Niro, the daughter of Robert De Niro, has revealed she is a transgender woman and opened up about her journey. Airyn was born in 1997 during De Niro’s relationship with her mother, Toukie Smith. She also has a twin, Julian De Niro. Despite her father’s status as an A-lister, Airyn has kept herself out of the limelight until recently, when recent tabloid articles accused her of nepotism, which she has denied in a new interview. Speaking to Them, Airyn said: “Not only did they get information wrong about me… They just sort of reminded me that people really...

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has officially signed Senate Bill 189 into law, granting approval for the sale and purchase of ivermectin for human use without a prescription. The new legislation, signed into law on Tuesday, allows ivermectin suitable for human consumption to be sold over-the-counter in Arkansas, making it accessible to individuals without the need for a prescription or consultation with a healthcare professional.

“Where generic drugs are manufactured can make a significant difference.” “The FDA assures the public that all generics patterned after the same original drug should be equivalently safe and effective, however, this is not necessarily the case when it comes to generic drugs made in India,” added another co-author, George Ball, associate professor of operations and decision technologies at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Generic drugs manufactured in India are linked to significantly more “severe adverse events” for patients who use them than equivalent drugs produced in the United States, a new study finds. These adverse events included hospitalization,...

Biden mistakenly invited listeners of his speech to Moscow to buy cheap medicine Washington, March 8-RIA Novosti. US President Joe Biden mistakenly invited those listening to his State of the Union address to Moscow to buy cheap medicine. The president is taking steps to lower the price of basic drugs such as insulin and convincing supporters that Republican opponents want to eliminate social programs that make drugs cheaper. Biden's argument is that the cost of the same drugs in Canada and other countries is lower than in the United States. "I have problems because of these words, but if any...

“FDA seeks to ease cancer drug shortage with China-made imports” was the headline on a USA Today article on June 5. Other media outlets covered the same story with similar headlines about the Food and Drug Administration’s move.While the China angle and the cancer angle were the most attention-grabbing elements, the bigger story is the long-standing, and increasingly frequent, problem of prescription drug shortages.As individual shortages pop up, the FDA works with manufacturers to try to resolve them. Yet collectively, the situation increasingly resembles a game of “whack-a-mole.”One idea gaining traction, both inside and outside of Congress, is to help...

I am facing a large bill in a few months for a prescription drug that my doctor says I need. My insurance is currently charging me $131 per 3 months. However, the drug costs the insurance company nearly $2,000 per 3 months. In July this charge will push me into the Medicare Part D "donut hole" gap, and I will have to pay nearly $500/3 month. I cannot afford that. I am thinking my best bet for lower prices is a reputable source outside the USA, such as a pharmacy in Canada, such as Claymans Pharmacy. Does anyone have experience...

Two economists reported Tuesday in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that President Joe Biden is cutting Medicare benefits through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which cuts payments for prescription drugs for seniors. Casey B. Mulligan and Tomas J. Philipson wrote: President Biden has accused Republicans of scheming to cut Medicare. In fact it is his signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, that will lead to benefit cuts and premium increases for seniors. Medicare’s popular drug-coverage program is headed for a painful amputation. The private plans participating in Medicare’s prescription-drug program, known as Part D, currently draw on three sources of...

With revolutionary vaccines being developed in near record time, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry have figured prominently in news coverage during the coronavirus pandemic. These life-saving vaccines have been offered at little or no cost to citizens. However, prior to the pandemic, the cost of prescription drugs for all maladies was a concern for many Americans. It is also likely to be a constant concern in the future. According to polling data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 80 percent of Americans describe the cost of prescription drugs as “unreasonable.” Further, another 31 percent say they actively have a...

The latest version of Democrats’ $4 trillion Build Back Better reconciliation bill includes a provision to empower the government to set Medicare drug prices.Government price-setting of prescription drugs is zombie legislation that just won’t die. After briefly being excised due to opposition from moderate legislators, the latest version of congressional Democrats’ $4 trillion Build Back Better reconciliation bill includes a provision to allow the government to set Medicare drug prices. “Democrats announced they have sealed a deal [on] pharmaceutical drug costs for seniors,” announced the Associated Press last week. The consequences of prescription drug price-setting in terms of reduced access...

The pharmaceutical sector is often characterized by 90 percent of wasted investments due to the rigorous process of drug approval. According to the Tuff Center for the Study of Drug Development, the average cost of drugs reaching market approval is $2.87 billion per approved drug. When the government limits incentives that motivate companies or individuals, the free market is hindered, and innovation is impeded. However, the remedy for lowering drug prices should not impede the ability of pharmaceutical companies to operate profitably. The Lower Drug Prices Now Act (H.R.3) will create substantial leverage for the federal government to set drug...

Congress is once again tossing around a piece of legislation that will do more for big government than for Americans. While intended to lower out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and treatments, H.R. 3 could take away mature adults’ ability to make their own healthcare decisions and put it in the hands of the federal government. Government interference not only imposes on the patient-provider relationship, but it also puts mature adults’ health at risk by restricting what treatments should be at their finger tips. Millions of retirees rely on the Medicare program because it provides access to various treatments for chronic...

On April 22, 2021, Representative Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) re-introduced the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (LDCNA). Shortly after re-introducing the bill to Congress, Pallone stated, “this legislation will dramatically rein in costs by finally empowering the federal government to negotiate fair prescription drug prices with Big Pharma.” While Representative Pallone’s bill is well-intentioned, LDCNA would establish rigid price controls for medications that would ultimately deny present and future patients access to life-improving and life-saving drugs. Perhaps most egregious is the fact lawmakers are advocating for price controls on pharmaceutical drugs despite clear warnings from the non-partisan...

In a hearing on Tuesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra revealed just how unfit he is to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Becerra dismissed the need to reform the federal "340B" program, even though it has morphed from a good-faith effort to help low-income Americans access medicines into a cash cow for the nation's largest hospitals and pharmacies. This mindset is deeply concerning. The 340B program was designed with the best of intentions. Back in 1992, worried about uninsured Americans struggling to secure prescription medicines, Congress created a program requiring drug companies to extend generous discounts --...

Hunter Biden kept a diary on his laptop and it’s bad. If America knew the real Biden family they would never be allowed in the White House, ever. When Hunter Biden is himself, he is an animal. He is a drug addict who isn’t curtailed by money or the law, like most all drug addicts are. He has lots of money from corrupt deals with some of the most violent people on earth and he is immune from the law due to being the son of Joe Biden. Hunter is one of the sickest people on this planet. We can...

For a long time, other nations have been free riders on America’s innovative pharmaceutical industry. Worse, they have enacted socialist price controls to limit what they pay knowing that the largest market would pick up the slack to ensure a steady supply of new lifesaving drugs. It needs to stop, but President Trump’s recent executive order is not the right way to do it. Earlier this month, the president signed his “Most Favored Nations” Executive Order to test a program limiting prescription medication payments made through Medicare Part B and Part D to the lowest rate paid in similarly developed...

President Trump has pulled the trigger on actually lowering prescription drug prices. By ending arbitrary trade barriers he could save Americans over $50 Billion a year. Even staunch believers in free-market capitalism recognize that there are areas where the government is required to put on a striped shirt and play the referee. Republicans going back to Teddy Roosevelt have understood that. Especially when companies have acquired monopoly powers. President Roosevelt ruffled feathers among Wall Street tycoons when he launched his effort to break up the trusts. Trusts that were abusing their market power, creating monopolies. American consumers were being harmed...

President Trump has again proven that he is a man of action. He says what he means and means what he says. He is all about results.  For over a generation, Americans have been held hostage by the drug companies. We are the largest market, yet we have been forced to pay the highest prices in the industrialized world. Not just a little more. A lot more. Elites in Washington with gold-plated insurance don’t see this. Millions of average American families do. Look at insulin for example. Recently, a vile of insulin carried a retail price of $300 here in the...

This story first appeared in 1600 Daily, the White House’s evening newsletter. Subscribe now to get breaking news from President Trump before anyone else. Americans have waited decades for Washington to keep its promise to fix soaring prescription drug prices. Now, thanks to President Trump, that long wait is over. [video at whitehouse.gov link]President Trump Takes Historic Action to Reduce Medicine Prices   The President signed four sweeping executive orders on Friday, which together will significantly lower the cost of prescription drugs while increasing access to life-saving medications such as insulin: The first order directs federally qualified health centers to...

Most Dems support M4A, but it wasn't enough of an issue by itself to get someone the nomination. Trump actually did something yet the media attacks him anyway. Where Is Biden? Biden says he support the ACA, which many Dems, white or black, say is pro-Big Pharma and the HC industry; they say this. So then Biden should support M4A, right, to maximize true blue base turnout and be against "corporate greed"? BLM has said they support M4A to help the quality of black lives, so where are they on this? In addition to this, unlike Trump's First Step Act...

A Seattle patient just became the first American to receive a potential breakthrough vaccine for COVID-19. That vaccine -- developed by Moderna, a Massachusetts biotech start-up -- is one of several experimental coronavirus vaccines and treatments that pharmaceutical firms are developing around the country. The industry's lightning-fast reaction is a testament to the ingenuity of America's scientists -- and the dynamism of America's drug-development system. And it's a reminder that Washington's ongoing effort to defund pharmaceutical innovation puts millions of lives at risk. To say that drug firms have moved quickly to combat this pandemic is an understatement. In the...