The free market is usually the way to go to establish a fair price. I don’t see the free market working in issues relating to pancreatic and lung cancer. Cranking the prices up like this isn’t free market: it’s legal extortion. It needs to stop.
Some countries cap the price so the companies make up for it via the price They charge in free market countries.
The whole damn industry from providers to insurance companies is a scam. The government has no interest in solving it, because not only are politicians are paid by the interested parties, but the 1/5 of the economy being extorted by these thieves makes it appear as though there is ‘economic growth’.
She recieved chemo on Tuesday, week one. 2 drugs, whose name escapes me as I type but, drug one cost $11,000 per round and drug 2 cost $5,500 per round. Two weeks later her treatment was drug one only for $11,000 and on wednesday she went in for a shot...Neulasta, I beleive, and that cost $11,500. This went on for 10 and a half months. She died 3 days shy of 11 months. My insurance paid for most of this but I'll be paying off my share for a while. I don't mind paying...I would have gladly gone into hock for the rest of my life if it would have saved her. What I do mind is knowing that there's no way in the world that these costs are justified and that as long as the pharma industry can collect these outrageous sums there's no incentive for them to really find a cure for cancer.
I'm a cancer survivor myself and if I'm ever diagnosed with an advanced stage cancer 3-4 I will not opt for any treatment. I was lucky. I had Renal Cell Carcinoma and all they had to do for me was remove a kidney, but if it comes back it's stage 4. I would never ever counsel anyone who is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer to put themself through chemo. Never. Not after seeing what my dear wife endured.
I used to get Celecoxib (generic Celebrex) from India because the FDA kept extending extending Pfizer's exclusivity on the product. Now that it is finally generic, my shitty company insurance pays for it. I still get a couple of medications from Canada.
Turn on the boob tube and all you see are ads from lawyers suing pharmaceutical companies.
They make sure it gets to the proper pockets in Washington to ensure that things stay the way they are.
Today you can legally be a heroin addict if you pay all the kings men! Why do you REALLY think we're still in Afghanistone? The spice must flow.
I believe that India does not protect the intellectual property of the drug companies. Nobody is going to pay enormous sums to create drugs which can then be freely copied by anybody else.
Glivec is only about twenty years old or less. The benefits to be derived from it will extend far past the day when it becomes more freely available. Patent protection is an important part of the success of western economies and shouldn't be eliminated or reduced. The inequities is pricing from one nation to another is a small price to pay for the benefits derived.
Yes, drugs cost less in Mexico, but how many life saving pharmaceuticals have come out of the Mexican drug industry? None, that I can think of.
Drugs cost less in Canada, but the last major drug to come out of Canadian research is insulin, and that was before Canada's health industry became socialized.
“Why invest in a cure when there’s good money to be made in prolonging the problem?” -Big Pharma
Well, a few reasons... Much of the time, it is excess inventory or licenses which are sold to those countries - additional profit with little investment, and subsidized through sales to US customers.
Beyond, there is little ability in India, for example, for a massive multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit. And honestly, once approved by the FDA, almost any drug is automatically approved in other jurisdictions.
To me, the real solution involves this: A considerable amount of the sticker price for drugs is to cover the inevitable class action lawsuits that are to come. Instead, add a small tax to prescription drugs to go into a FDA fund which will pay ALL claims for any drug issues and put in stiff criminal penalties for any drug company that conceals or inflates any data from drug trials and reports after the drugs are released.
When drug companies no longer need a one to ten billion dollar contingency fund to cover future court claims, the prices will fall sharply. If you further make it illegal for drug companies to directly market to doctors, you cut costs even more dramatically.
It’s just as Trump said, Americans are saps for the whole world to take advantage of. Here and hundreds of other ways.
You left out a key factor - litigation risk, which is much higher in the US than overseas. That could be addressed - it was for certain vaccines - but there will be a transfer of risk to the individual associated with that.
So, only the highest bidders will get lifesaving drugs?
If you want to pay less for drugs, the answer is exceedingly simple - eliminate the FDA completely.
Cost of getting a drug to market in the US exceeds a gigabuck.
Not every compound a drug company has under development is going to pay off. If a drug company comes up with a single blockbuster in two years, it funds the development of every other compound they have under development. Profitability, generally, is determined by deciding which compounds you intend to shelve, and when.
The other thing you can do is force Europe to buy meds on a hospital system by hospital system basis. Today, governments buy drugs on behalf of their entire health system. I wouldn’t be surprised if the EU has taken to doing it for all member nations.
That’s the opposite of a monopoly. It’s called a monopsony - when there is one buyer only, and they dictate to the manufacturer what it is they are going to pay.
Today, Europe shoulders none of the cost of development. They get a free ride on our tail.
It’s time to get real here. The production cost of almost all drugs is so close to zero that it can usually be ignored. The real cost is totally due to government regulation. It costs on the order of a billion dollars to bring a new drug to market. That’s BILLION, with a B. Unless you include that cost, don’t waste my time. And don’t whine about drug company gouging you unless you can show me a drug company that earns an extraordinary net profit.