Forget guns, we need pharmaceutical control

[Wolfstrike]

you know how the media whines and cries for 6 months when someone gets shot?, and how much of a tragedy it is that Americans have gun rights? ...and most of the statistics are from cops shooting people...

Doctors are selling pharmaceutical crap and people are dropping dead left and right. What happens to them? a $100 per month raise in their malpractice insurance, if convicted?



40 deaths per day from prescription drugs

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20111101/40-us-deaths-a-day-from-prescription-painkillers


1 kid every 9 seconds poisoned from pills

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/06/03/more-kids-being-poisoned-by-prescription-drugs-study

 

[waltky]

Big Pharma bribin' doctors to prescribe more expensive medicines with free dinners...

Free Meals Lead Doctors to Prescribe More Expensive Medicine
June 21, 2016 - The practice of pharmaceutical sales representatives treating doctors to free meals may be driving up the out-of-pocket price of drugs in the U.S., a new study suggests.

Writing in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers from the University of California San Francisco found that the marketing practice makes doctors more likely to prescribe expensive name brand drugs, which are not always covered by insurance, over cheaper generics.

The study found that doctors who were treated to just one meal costing less than $20 “were up to two times as likely to prescribe the promoted brand name drugs as physicians who received no meals.” Doctors who accepted multiple free meals were three times more likely to prescribe name brand medicine. “Whether a formal dinner or a brief lunch in a doctor’s office, these encounters are an opportunity for drug company representatives to discuss products with physicians and their staff,” said Adams Dudley, director of the Center for Healthcare Value at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF, and the senior scientist on the study. “The meals may influence physicians’ prescribing decisions.”

A new study suggests that doctors who receive free meals from pharmaceutical companies are more likely to prescribe name brand drugs over cheaper generics.​

Previous studies have shown that people prescribed more affordable generic drugs are more likely to stay on the medication for the prescribed amount of time while they are less likely to do so with more expensive name brand drugs. “A lot of the financial burden of using brand name drugs instead of generic drugs falls on the seniors enrolled in Medicare, who pay an average monthly co-pay of $40 to $80 for brand name drugs, but only $1 for generics,” said Colette DeJong, a UCSF medical student who was involved in the study.

Previous studies have shown that doctors who take payments from pharmaceutical companies through activities like paid speeches are more likely to prescribe the more expensive name brand drugs.

Free Meals Lead Doctors to Prescribe More Expensive Medicine

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - dey all a buncha rip-off artists...

Drugmakers under fire for possible U.S. price fixing
November 3, 2016 - Two prominent U.S. lawmakers on Thursday called on federal antitrust regulators to probe whether Sanofi SA, Eli Lilly and Co, Merck & Co Inc and Novo Nordisk A/S colluded to set prices for insulin and other diabetes drugs.

The request by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Elijah Cummings follows a similar letter they sent last fall calling for an investigation into 14 drug companies over price increases of generic drugs. U.S. prosecutors could file the first charges by the end of the year in their subsequent criminal investigation of generic drugmakers over suspected price collusion, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. (http://bloom.bg/2e6cZjF) A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

In their latest letter to the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, Sanders, an independent, and Cummings, a Democrat, raised questions about skyrocketing prices for insulin, and included a chart showing that many of the price spikes appeared to occur in tandem. They noted that the original patent on insulin, a hormone used by diabetics to control blood sugar levels, expired 75 years ago. Sanofi spokeswoman Ashleigh Koss said in an emailed statement that "Sanofi sets the prices of our treatments independently."

Novo Nordisk also said it sets prices "independently" and said it stands by its business practices. A spokeswoman for Merck said the company does not make insulin. Merck makes other products to treat diabetes. Eli Lilly, in an email, said it strongly disagrees with the accusations in the letter. "The insulin market in the U.S. is highly competitive," the pharmaceutical company said.

Shares of several generic drugmakers fell on Thursday after the report of pending Justice Department charges. Mylan N.V. closed down 6.9 percent, Allergan Plc fell 4.5 percent and Endo International Plc dropped 19.5 percent. Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc Ltd, which recently acquired Allergan's generics business, fell 9.5 percent. "We do not think the major generic companies have likely participated in significant pricing collusion," A/B Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal said in a research note.

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