Re: OT-Why we pay so much for drugs

[Guest guest]

The largest jump in drug prices came shortly after drug companies

were allowed to begin advertising in magazines, radio, and

television. Prior to that time they were not allowed to advertise.

When I took marketing way back when, it was taught that 50% of the

price of any item went directly to marketing. If you look at a pill

that is $3.00, then according to the principle, $1.50 goes to

marketing of some sort. I say stop allowing all adds of drugs except

for Internet sites, which would allow the consumer to have knowledge

without the costs of mass media adds. Of course, drugs would still

be high, but not nearly as high as they are since mass marketing

began.

Debi

[Guest guest]

Drugs are so high because the government requires the pharmaceutical

companies to test for 10 yrs(unless you have a vaccine) and it costs the

companies millions to even get a drug to market. Blame the gov't for the

price of your drugs!!!!!!!!The companies have to somehow recoup their

research dollars.

R

[Guest guest]

Unless I'm mistaken, the laws for testing were similar 20 yrs ago,

but it has been since deregulation of advertising that the prices

have skyrocketed.

At the same time, if our gov allowed a drug to go straight to the

consumer and it caused significant health issues, the public would

be screaming as to where the gov protection is. Look at SSRI use and

all the complaints that it hasn't been tested adequately on

children, yet many of us have successfully used drugs in treating

our children's OCD/anxiety issues.

I once read that the vast majority of drug breakthroughs come from

the gov, not from the R & D depts of drug cos. Don't know the truth of

that statement, but makes you wonder how many charging outrageous

prices for a drug which was discovered in a state college science

lab.

Debi

> Drugs are so high because the government requires the

pharmaceutical

> companies to test for 10 yrs(unless you have a vaccine) and it

costs the

> companies millions to even get a drug to market. Blame the gov't

for the

> price of your drugs!!!!!!!!The companies have to somehow recoup

their

> research dollars.

> R

[Guest guest]

> Unless I'm mistaken, the laws for testing were similar 20 yrs ago,

Actually, no, and more to the point the laws give the FDA a LOOOT of

leeway in what it does and it has abused that more and more as time

went on.

> but it has been since deregulation of advertising that the prices

> have skyrocketed.

It has also been since insurance companies mostly started offering drug

coverage that they have skyrocketed.

> At the same time, if our gov allowed a drug to go straight to the

> consumer and it caused significant health issues, the public would

> be screaming as to where the gov protection is.

Yup. The people who want a nanny state to take care of them do really

mess it up for the rest of us.

>Look at SSRI use and

> all the complaints that it hasn't been tested adequately on

> children, yet many of us have successfully used drugs in treating

> our children's OCD/anxiety issues.

>

> I once read that the vast majority of drug breakthroughs come from

> the gov, not from the R & D depts of drug cos.

You may have read this, but it is entirely false. Zero of the drug

breakthroughs were from the government or federal R & D, similarly to

most other areas where it turns out if you check the government

parasites are claiming credit for other people's work.

>Don't know the truth of

> that statement, but makes you wonder how many charging outrageous

> prices for a drug which was discovered in a state college science

> lab.

It is true that the drug companies give large grants to some chemistry

professors to make a lot of different chemicals and send them to the

company for testing, but by doing this they do let a lot of people get

PhD's and get paid for it instead of the old system where they had to

pay tuition, living expenses and also buy their own chemicals. And the

drug companies are really not obnoxious, demanding or controlling about

what goes on as long as some reasonable number of new chemicals show up

for screening. Lots of my grad school buddies got very good educations

from drug company grants.

Most of the actual drugs that flow from this are not the same chemicals

as the students made anyway, they are the 10,000th variant of them that

the drug company synthesized in its own lab to try to find one that

works the best.

> Debi

>

>

>

> > Drugs are so high because the government requires the

> pharmaceutical

> > companies to test for 10 yrs(unless you have a vaccine) and it

> costs the

> > companies millions to even get a drug to market.

Yup. Put a quarter billion on the line and find out in 10 years if you

are allowed to market the drug or not. Those are the current numbers.

Anyone with a modicum of business or financial background can turn

those into the present price of drugs so that the companies make enough

return on investment to have people willing to buy their stock and give

them the quarter billion to play with in the first place.

>Blame the gov't for the price of your drugs!!!!!!!!

Doubly.

1. Regulation drives up the price.

2. By encouraging employer provided health insurance they rmoved the

pricing mechanism from the marketplace so that the patients - the

customers - really don't care very much if the doc Rx's a penny pill or

a fifty dollar one.

>The companies have to somehow recoup their research dollars.

Yup.

It is a shocking intellectual and moral failure to yammer about how

they should be 'ethical, " when all that would result in is the

" ethical " companies being out of business and the " unethical " ones

taking over their product line. The companies are ultimately

controlled by the moral imperative to pay a good return to their

stockholders, and if we create a system where they have to do bad

things in order to do so it is our fault the companies are doing bad

things, not theirs.

The fundamental choices are:

Continue the current system and let the drug companies end up with all

the money in the world,

eliminate the FDA and have a bunch of charlatans and quacks marketing

" snake oil brand medicine " as is currently happening with " detox, "

Increaes regulation and eliminate all progress so nobody ever gets

better drugs - and probably the drug companies still end up with all

the money.. . . . . . . . .. . . .

> > R

[Guest guest]

When did " fast-tracking " drugs begin? Didn't this policy change open the door

for the drug companies to take advantage of what was originally intended to be

an exceptional situation for a handful of experimental drugs? Seems to me under

current policy thinking there are plenty of more drugs to do everything you want

then ever before with little long term testing and research. How much piling on

is going on?

More to the point, why should the general public be so concerned about how long

it takes to produce another profitable drug? What has brain-washed so many

people into accepting the idea that drug companies NEED to have such huge

profits in order for us to get better? Why is it a matter of national concern?

They certainly are excellent in sharing the business. Great lobbyists!

In discussing this issue how on earth could you ignore drug re-importation?

Regulation works fine for other countries. The truth is drug and vaccine

manufacturers are raping Americans because they can. They spend incredible

amounts of money and use the U.S. government to protect their profits wherever

and whenever they can.

This drug issue is easy to resolve. Reagan said, " If it moves, tax it. If

it continues to move,....regulate it.

[ ] Re: OT-Why we pay so much for drugs

Unless I'm mistaken, the laws for testing were similar 20 yrs ago,

but it has been since deregulation of advertising that the prices

have skyrocketed.

At the same time, if our gov allowed a drug to go straight to the

consumer and it caused significant health issues, the public would

be screaming as to where the gov protection is. Look at SSRI use and

all the complaints that it hasn't been tested adequately on

children, yet many of us have successfully used drugs in treating

our children's OCD/anxiety issues.

I once read that the vast majority of drug breakthroughs come from

the gov, not from the R & D depts of drug cos. Don't know the truth of

that statement, but makes you wonder how many charging outrageous

prices for a drug which was discovered in a state college science

lab.

Debi

> Drugs are so high because the government requires the

pharmaceutical

> companies to test for 10 yrs(unless you have a vaccine) and it

costs the

> companies millions to even get a drug to market. Blame the gov't

for the

> price of your drugs!!!!!!!!The companies have to somehow recoup

their

> research dollars.

> R

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