Topic: Pharma Shrugs

[Glock32]

H/T: www.smalldeadanimals.com

As a pharmacist of 25 years currently working in hospital pharmacy-I can tell you that the drug shortages are ongoing, dire, and in some cases life-threatening. Take a look at ashp.org/shortages to see the extent of the problem. Many items on the list are for crash carts and critical care.

We’ve had to resort to back-up products, alternatives and work-arounds. All of which compromise quality of care and safety.

As industries are subjected to more and more byzantine regulations, and industries associated with health care are in particular demonized and told that their products and services are "rights", the inevitable occurs. They just stop bothering, because it's literally not worth it.

Quietly, a number of essential pharmaceutical agents have become short in supply. The link below, and the links there, illustrate the scope of the problem. Of particular note is the fact that the US consumer has, for decades, effectively subsidized the socialized medical systems of other countries. Because the pharmaceutical companies must sell their products at such low margins to the socialized systems, they have sought to recoup their substantial R&D costs in the US. What will happen as that last semi-private market also fades into oblivion? What will happen when the government destroys personal incentive to work extra hours, to undergo years of difficult study in chemistry and medicine? When it destroys the incentive for a business to take on billions of dollars of R&D in pursuit of new drugs?

We're already seeing it, and this is only a hint of what's to come.

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/016586.html

[IronDioPriest]

Leftism must die, and be eradicated from acceptable discourse in this country.

[Libertas]

I saw this 2 1/2 decades ago when I worked for a division of Eli Lilly.  The leftists were attacking pharma back then over exorbitant profits but they have no fricken clue what drives innovation!  Then in the 90's it was high cost of drugs and the patent system they attacked, further driving a wedge between innovation and the market.  Now we've come to sow the seeds of their bitter harvest, and the left deigns mock outrage.  I loath their lying faces and just want to shove them into the dirt!

[Darby]

I've always wondered why prescription medicines were cheaper in other countries. I know of friends who order their prescription medicines from India. It's the same pharmaceutical company and the same medicine that they can get in the U.S. but instead of paying $190 for the medicine, it costs them $35 and sometimes even less. I always wondered why don't the pharmaceutical companies spread out the costs of research and development to all markets rather than what appears to be just the U.S. market.

[LadyVirginia]

I've always wondered why prescription medicines were cheaper in other countries.

Perhaps because in the USA the government and insurance is footing the bill.

[Pandora]

I've always wondered why prescription medicines were cheaper in other countries.

Perhaps because in the USA the government and insurance is footing the bill.

Yes.  Because other countries have price-control caps set on drugs.

I am unable to make the whole link work.  Use the home page link, below:

http://www.thewheatonwire.com/home/

Enter "Subsidized prescription drugs trouble the economy" in the search box; it will bring up the piece by John Thomas.

[charlesoakwood]

[blockquote]

...
There is a serious caveat, however: drugs sold in Europe and Canada are subject to price controls.
...
More specifically, price controls reduce the amount of profit sellers can make, which in this case reduces the incentive and ability of pharmaceutical companies to spend money on researching new drugs.
...

[/blockquote]

How can they make a profit without selling drugs for so much money?

If the cost of bringing a drug to market were lowered, say, by reducing regulation causing redundant testing and ten year trial period, pharma could sell at lower prices and still recover the cost of bringing the drug to market.

[Glock32]

Pandora's got it. Because socialized countries have rigid price controls, the few countries where the drugs can be sold with a decent profit margin bear the bulk of the pharmaceutical industry's R&D. In a sense you could say the American consumer is subsidizing the cheaper drugs in Canada and Europe, not unlike our defense spending and protective umbrella spared them from making those investments in their own defense, allowing them to instead spend the money on social programs -- effectively subsidizing their welfare state.

[Janny]

Pandora's got it. Because socialized countries have rigid price controls, the few countries where the drugs can be sold with a decent profit margin bear the bulk of the pharmaceutical industry's R&D. In a sense you could say the American consumer is subsidizing the cheaper drugs in Canada and Europe, not unlike our defense spending and protective umbrella spared them from making those investments in their own defense, allowing them to instead spend the money on social programs -- effectively subsidizing their welfare state.

Yes.