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What is the cause of certain prescription drugs to be so costly?

Posted on 06/19/2012 5:45:07 PM PDT by reaganator

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To: Brandonmark
The 11 Most Expensive Medicines in America

"Soliris has been made famous by Forbes as the world’s single most expensive drug, coming in at $409,500 a year."

21 posted on 06/19/2012 6:05:37 PM PDT by Brandonmark (2012: Our Hope IS Change!)
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To: mvpel

Interesting. Sounds more like a treatment than a ‘prescription drug’. Maybe the ‘high-priced’ averages some from including this kind of designer stuff and the ‘mean cost’ would be more realistic.


22 posted on 06/19/2012 6:07:12 PM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: reaganator

The costs must include writing patient information at 5th grade levels.


23 posted on 06/19/2012 6:11:10 PM PDT by hocndoc (WingRight.org Have mustard seed, not afraid to use it. Hold Rs to promises, don't watch O keep his.)
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To: reaganator

I am a big fan of expensive medicines. A very close relative of mine (details omitted for privacy) is in serious need of medical assistance that does not currently exist. This relative has time, since the issue is not immediately life-threatening, but an effective treatment (probably pharmaceutical) would provide a huge improvement in quality of life. If the drug companies did not expect to make a sufficient profit to justify both the research costs and the risk that those costs would be a total loss, who would bother doing the research? I hope these companies do the research, succeed, and make an obscene profit without Obama/Pelosi/Reid stealing their hard-earned profits from them. When they pay a 50% “windfall profits” tax and your liberal friend asks why the drug costs twice what it “should”, you’ll know the answer.


24 posted on 06/19/2012 6:13:33 PM PDT by Pollster1 (A boy becomes a man when a man is needed - John Steinbeck)
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To: reaganator

One thing to consider is the market factor. Some drugs treat very rare conditions, so there is a limited demand for them. That alone would warrant a higher price, since the cost of developing the drug surely doesn’t scale with the potential demand. The drug company would have to recoup its costs by charging a higher price to a smaller number of customers.


25 posted on 06/19/2012 6:14:26 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: jjotto
Maybe the ‘high-priced’ averages some from including this kind of designer stuff and the ‘mean cost’ would be more realistic.

If they tried that, the government would slap them with a anti-competitive business practices lawsuit, and accuse them of gouging and predatory pricing.

26 posted on 06/19/2012 6:17:05 PM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: Boogieman

gimme a break. this is capitalism. They charge whatever they can get away with.


27 posted on 06/19/2012 6:17:25 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: reaganator
My friend's daughter contracted a very rare strain of MRSA. They went through a number of treatments but the drug was resistant and she got worse.

They spent a night in the hospital with her, holding her and hoping she wouldn't die before morning when an experimental treatment was flown in from Chicago.

The drug made it on time and she was treated and out of the hospital in a week. It was a treatment that was developed by the drug company for a strain so rare that it had only been used about seven times.

He was very happy to pay $11,000 for the cure.

28 posted on 06/19/2012 6:20:32 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: reaganator

Merck needs corporate jets to research new drugs. Endless corporate douchebaggery.


29 posted on 06/19/2012 6:24:40 PM PDT by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.....)
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To: King Moonracer
Merck needs corporate jets to research new drugs.

It's more likely that the corporate jets are used to fly people places.

30 posted on 06/19/2012 6:27:59 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: mvpel

“The average drug developed by a major pharmaceutical company costs at least $4 billion, and it can be as much as $11 billion.”

Or you Could be getting a King Sized Snow Job. See pgs 15-16

http://freepdfhosting.com/d4bad152b5.pdf

“this Court finds the actions of the Defendants, upon this audience, to be detestable.”

“Annual Sales of Risperdal worldwide per annual reports of Johnson & Johnson, Inc.
1994: $0.172 Billion
1995: $0.343 Billion
1996: $0.502 Billion
1998: $0.588 Billion
1999: $0.892 Billion
2000: $1.083 Billion
2001: $1.845 Billion
2002: $2.146 Billion
2003: $2.512 Billion
2004: $3.05 Billion
2005: $3.552 Billion
2006: $4.180 Billion
2007: $4.697 Billion
2008: $1.309 Billion
2009: $1.425 Billion
2010: $1.50 Billion

Total for the period: $29.796 Billion

Testimony at trial indicated that the profit margin for sales of Risperdal was 97% or $28.90 Billion for the period of 1994-2010”

And the fact that the FDA is the Drug Companies puppet might Also have something to do with it.

http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/UserFees/PrescriptionDrugUserFee/ucm152775.htm

A 5th of FDA’s budget comes directly from drug companies through PDUFA fees.

And, that particular J&J drug is going to cost them/J&J a $2.2 Billion Bribe to the Federal DOJ in trade for the Obama DOJ foregoing their deposing of new CEO Alex Gorsky over his part in all Manner of Illegal shenanigans.

http://johnsonandtoxin.com/alex_gorsky.shtml
http://www.pharmalot.com/2012/06/jj-may-pay-2-2b-to-settle-risperdal-probes/

Then again, before you flame me as an anti business troll, you Might take a day or two to get up to speed on exactly Who and What just that 1 drug company is.

http://www.pharmalot.com/tag/johnson-johnson/

Then if you want to know more about why drugs cost so much, you’ll take a look at what the employees have to say to each other, at Any drug company.

http://www.cafepharma.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=4


31 posted on 06/19/2012 6:30:11 PM PDT by To-Whose-Benefit? (It is Error alone which needs the support of Government. The Truth can stand by itself.)
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To: reaganator

The answer is R+D, supply vs demand and government interference. I feel sorry for your friend but what kind of law does he wish to pass?


32 posted on 06/19/2012 6:31:03 PM PDT by plain talk
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To: reaganator
Over the past seventeen years, the FDA cost overhead has gone from $359 million to well over $1 billion USD. Here is a link from 2009 that quotes $494 million. Conversations with drug company scientists place the figure in the much higher range.

The FDA is broken and arguably is a killer. The case of Atenolol is a good study in how the process resulted in over 100 thousands deaths due to the delays in approval. The drug was readily available in Europe while all these deaths occurred.
33 posted on 06/19/2012 6:34:28 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Time to beat the swords of government tyranny into the plowshares of freedom.)
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To: Innovative; reaganator
"I think the other reason is that after a relatively short time — 12 years (?) "

You had good points.  One correction:  they have only 7 years to recover billions of dollars and make some profit, too.

34 posted on 06/19/2012 6:34:28 PM PDT by OneHun
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To: dead
It's more likely that the corporate jets are used to fly people places.

No way!!! Really? Its a perk that the C level employees don't pay taxes for.

35 posted on 06/19/2012 6:35:38 PM PDT by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.....)
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To: reaganator
With Obama cutting special deals with drug makers prices won't be coming down any time soon.
36 posted on 06/19/2012 6:45:45 PM PDT by eclecticEel (Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: 7/4/1776 - 3/21/2010)
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To: Lizavetta

I picked up a horrible lung/chest infection last fall that went from being a virus to one the doc referred to as bacterial. Several meds at a cost of almost $600 did nothing so he prescribed steroids. 16 of them taken over 5 days at a cost of $3.50 - but they were only available at one of our many local pharmacies. Cured my infection almost immediately although I did have a HUGE weight gain.

Hard to understand.


37 posted on 06/19/2012 6:46:24 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: To-Whose-Benefit?
The 97% profit margin amounts to nothing if only one drug in 30 becomes profitable.

If I thought, as you apparently do, that drug companies are so incredibly profitable, I would either start my own company or buy stocks in them.

Americans are being encouraged to treat access to drugs as an entitlement, even though most modern day drugs didn't even exist thirty or forty years ago. I'm embarassed to be associated with such weak thinkers.

38 posted on 06/19/2012 6:48:15 PM PDT by William Tell
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To: reaganator

LAWYERS


39 posted on 06/19/2012 6:51:33 PM PDT by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: reaganator
He’s a liberal, does not want to discover anything

OK.

Why is he your friend?

40 posted on 06/19/2012 6:56:21 PM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist savages, start today.)
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