Senate votes to maintain Big Pharma's Monopoly by blocking competitive imports

U.S. senate votes to maintain big pharma's monopoly by blocking competitive imports

Liberals in Congress and the White House my ass.

 

When are those nasty Republicans going to stop putting their hands out and taking corporate handouts every time the Democrats try to accomplish something good?

 

Don't think it's not already being done. I had a real bad experience recently with some meds I got at Walmart. They had changed suppliers about 3 times on this one particular drug. I moved all my meds to another pharmacy and was telling the pharmacist about my experience and that the drugs had been produced in India. He said there was more medicine being produced in India than most people realize.

US pharmaceutical companies are farming the work out to overseas producers who then ship them right back here where they are housed in huge warehouses and bought by various pharmacies, etc. for distribution.

 

I would love to side with you, but I think there are better ways to bring down the cost of US made drugs in the US, than importing drugs from other countries.

I am not against importing on principle, but the regulatory aspects and safety objections are where I stand as caution is the best policy here.

 

This is what creeps me out. Farming out labor always ends up being a cost savings issue. When costs are lowered as much as possible, quality takes a hit.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html

As with medical care, I do not think it in the best interests of the American people to view medicine as strictly a commodity, a merchandise equivalent to a car or even---a lawn mower.

 

About that:

 

bad.

a side note: The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart

I know Big Pharma has a strong lobby, but that does not mean they are always on the wrong side when it comes to legislation, where consumers are concerned---though they often are.

 

I am always a little skeptical of anything about "Big Pharma" from "natural news". They have an axe to grind. It sounds like there were some safety concerns and the Senators didn't want to rush through the FDA thing.

We'll see what happens. When it comes to "natural medicine" though, the "Big Pharma" and "politicians in it's back pocket" is a recurring theme that gets old and lame.

 

Why don't we explore the economic world of pharmaceuticals and cheap drug imports a minute, hmmm?

The pharmaceutical industry is subject to government price controls in every industrialized country in the world except for the United States. For years, Americans have enviously eyed cheap drugs in Canada, for example, where strict price controls and a socialized healthcare system allows for the sale of drugs at nearly half the US price.

As we have seen, American Democrats - and others - have pushed to have these price-controlled foreign drugs resold in the US, essentially importing foreign price controls to us as well.

US-based drug companies spend vast amounts to develop new drugs, and Americans pay high prices for them. Once developed, they're reasonably inexpensive to manufacture, and companies are willing to sell abroad at a price that merely covers the cost of manufacturing and distribution.

Meanwhile, America covers the research and development costs through our higher prices. America, which comprises just 5% of the world's population, accounts for 50% of the world's spending on drugs. Basically, we're underwriting the rest of the world and enabling them. Not "fair" (if you spend a lot of time thinking about such things), because most industrialized nations could bear more of their own share of these costs. But if the US drug prices dropped sharply due to reimportation, drug companies would simply stop making so many new drugs. There's no reason to spend on research and development if you're not going to recoup the costs.

Moreover, those drugs that are close to completion will be finished, but those just starting development will be shelved. Thus, it would be years after the beginning of reimportation before new drugs completely stopped being developed. And when it finally became apparent, who would people blame? Not the government price controls. No, they would rush to vilify drug companies for "not doing their job". (Thanks to John Lott)

There are a few other things one should know about the pharmaceutical industry, before anyone starts screaming about "obscene profit margins" and other nonsense:

The average profit margin of the pharmaceutical companies in the Fortune 1000 list is 16% (profits as a percent of revenue). This is in line with the profit margins of the banking (13%), diversified financial (11%), tobacco (11%), and real estate (10%) industries (Fortune, 2002) . None of these industries has the need to pour money back into research that the pharmaceutical industry does. The 2002 Fortune 500 Industry Rankings. "How the Fortune 1000 Stack Up In Their Industries." Fortune. April 15, 2002. www.fortune.com/lists/F500/indsnap_41.html

Drug industry returns have remained steady since 1981 at only 2 to 3% above the cost of capital (Little, 2002). "Examining the Relationship Between Pharmaceutical Pricing and Innovation." Published by Arthur D. Little, Inc. on May 10, 2002. Available online at www.galen.org/news/PricingInnovationText.pdf

The pharmaceutical industry's risk-adjusted return is actually lower than other R&D-intensive industries, such as computer network, equipment, and software services (Little, 2002).

The pharmaceutical industry's total tax liability (as a percent of income subject to U.S. tax) is 33.8%, which is slightly higher than for all manufacturing (33.7%) and for all industries (33.5%).

The pharmaceutical industry pays more tax than 97% of all industries. "Taxing the Pharmaceutical Industry" PhRMA Backgrounder. July 17, 2000. Available online at www.phrma.org/publications/documents/backgrounders/2000-07-17.208.phtml

No other industry - from electronics to telecommunications - commits a higher percentage of sales revenues to new innovation and future advances. Whereas industry on average devotes just 3% of sales and export revenue to R&D, the pharmaceutical industry devotes more than 20%. "The Myth of 'Rising Drug Prices' Exposed." PhRMA Backgrounder. March 6, 2002. Available online at www.phrma.org/publications/documents/backgrounders/2002-03-06.333.phtml

 

Mmm, delicious copypasta from 2002.

http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/news/Jul2002/DrugCompanyProfitsvsResearch.html