How Big Pharma Rips You Off on Drugs

[Honeycombe8]

Prescription drugs cost Americans far more than they do people living in many other parts of the world. This is because drug companies spend a fortune on direct-to-consumer sales and marketing (which they don't do in other countries) and because other nations negotiate better deals for drugs than private insurers do in the United States.



Arthur Caplan

Is there anything that can be done to lower costs and increase the availability of more affordable and equally effective drugs? Yes.



Zachary Caplan

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that drew little attention in the media: Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis. The stakes are high.

When the court decides this case, probably in June, it will either reinforce Big Pharma shenanigans that have helped keep prices high and skyrocketing, or finally bring some relief to our pocketbook and escalating national health care bill for drugs.

The issue is whether companies that own patents for prescription drugs can pay other companies that want to make cheaper generic versions not to do so, a practice known as pay-for-delay.

One way to get lower prices on drugs is to get generic versions out to replace name-brand drugs. Generic drugs include the exact same active ingredients as the brand names. The difference is the name of the medication and the color or shape of the pill.



Prescription drug manufacturers, fearing the arrival of cheaper generics and knowing or worrying that their patents alone won't keep out competitors, try to buy off the competition instead.

In the case before the court, Solvay Pharmaceuticals is accused of paying off would-be generic manufacturers of their blockbuster drug AndroGel, a synthetic testosterone used by hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients, cancer patients, elderly men and others who suffer from low levels of testosterone. The generic companies were happy; they made money for doing nothing. Solvay continued to reap huge profits by keeping its monopoly in the market. The only losers were patients who have had to keep paying much higher prices for their name-brand-only drug.

Usually, buying off your competitors is clearly illegal. Pay-for-delay deals run counter to basic antitrust principles. Nonetheless, some lower courts, declining to evaluate the strength of a patent, have let Big Pharma get away with these deals.

Big Pharma views the settlements as a bargain. Instead of losing up to 90% of their market share bcause of the introduction of a generic, companies can simply pay generic manufacturers and make the competition go away.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, who co-wrote the Hatch-Waxman Act, has been very vocal in arguing that a law Congress intended to help reduce the cost of prescription medicines has been hijacked by the drug industry to do the opposite.

What we have now are the generic manufacturers and Big Pharma making a fortune by agreeing to delay competition that would bring lower priced drugs to market.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/25/opinion/caplan-prescription-drugs/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

And yet, we STILL have that provision in the Medicare Reform Act that prevents the fed. govt. from negotiating prices with Big Pharma. It's sickening.

[Newest Reality]

1. Bzzzzzzzzzz.

My, what a really, really big mosquito that is and look at that gigantic proboscis!

Notice how it creates drugs to lure the host and then proceeds to feed keeping the host alive, just enough, to continue providing it with tasty meals.

America: Negotiating with big parasites since ... whenever.

[Thinkingabout]

2. This is a problem in the US, we pay more in the US for the same drug than other countries. I just

wonder how many Congressional members past and present are in the pockets of Big Pharma. This has been happening for years. It cost tax payer money in paying for medicare and medicaid plus prevents those without insurance from being able to afford drugs. I personally receive an injection each week and the suggested cost of the drug in $2500 and Medicare is paying $984 a week. We should start flooding our congress members this needs to stop and it would probably be another 90/10 issue.

[reformist2]

3. Do insurers 'negotiate' with Big Pharma at all in the US? It seems like they rubber stamp everything

[Honeycombe8]

4. That's the way it seems to me.

What's their incentive for negotiating prices down, when they just pass the cost along as increased premiums?

[edhopper]

5. Remember as part od Medicare D

Bush insisted that Medicare COULD NOT negotiate price with the Drug Companies.
They also flat out lied about the expense of the plan.

[Honeycombe8]

6. Yep. AND let's remember that Obama's admin. made a deal with Big Pharma....

that in the ACA, they would not seek to repeal that provision that prevents negotiation of prescription drug prices, IF Big Pharma doesn't campaign against the ACA.

So we still have that unfair provision that hurts millions of citizens. Big Pharma is apparently very powerful.

[reformist2]

7. I once heard of workers at one pharma co cheering, giving each other *high fives* when they got word

that their new orphan drug for a terminal illness got approval from insurers to be priced at $200,000 per year.

Anecdotal story I know, but the person who told me this has a high degree of credibility.

[Buzz Clik]

8. Ripped off? They are offering a product with a demand.

If you are willing to pay, no matter how reluctantly, you are not getting ripped off. You are simply negotiating from a point of weakness.

[reformist2]

9. Point of weakness = being taken advantage of = getting ripped off.

[Buzz Clik]

10. Blame yourself.

[reformist2]

12. Anyone who works for Big Pharma is profiting from driving thousands of families into bankruptcy.

[Buzz Clik]

14. Ok. Do you have someone in mind?

[pipoman]

11. No, it's a 'rip off' when one can go

10 miles north or south of the US border and buy the exact same product for 1/3 to 1/2 the price protected in the US (and sometimes more). Why is this OK? Just because you are receiving a product in return for your money doesn't mean you are not being ripped off. We are not talking about snickers bars or bed linens here, we are talking about life saving technology and products. I believe these products and services are collectively owned by all humanity and should be available to anyone who needs them..others apparently feel that if someone cannot afford needed treatments for serious illness or disease they should just go away and die...it will leave that much more for those who can afford to pay..

[JayhawkSD]

13. "Generic drugs include the exact same active ingredients as the brand names."

Unfortunately, that is not always the case. They sometimes have different inert ingredients, and those can affect the effectiveness of the medication. They can even have a different formulation of the active ingredient. Government oversight of the manufacture of generics is nonexistant.

Generics purchased from major pharmacies in the US should be okay. Not because of government oversight, but because those pharmacies are concerned about their reputation. Pharmacies know what brands/manufacturers of generics have a good track record. Generics purchased on the Internet, especially from overseas, are a gamble.

Even generics manufactured in this country and sold in major cut rate pharmacies may not be entirely equal to name brand medications.

[tabbycat31]

15. An easy way to cut the costs

Ban direct to consumer advertising of these drugs.