Fucking Drug Companies

[bailadora]

This really should go in the "What Pissed You Off Today" thread, but I couldn't find it.

The FDA gave K-V the exclusive rights to a prescription formula for a drug that's been around for years - synthetic progesterone. It's used quite frequently by OB's to help stop pre-term labor. Previously, it was filled by compounding pharmacies and cost between $10-20 per shot. K-V jacked up the price to $1500 per injection. WHAT THE FUCK?

According to the story on my local broadcast, K-V invested no R&D funds into this product, they merely "standardized" it. Further, the funds for the study to approve the drug came from tax payers. How in the HELL does K-V think this increase is warranted?

Full story here.

 

[NippleMuncher]

Because rape and pillage is the order of the day in corporate America. Why is it, when there's no oil shortage, no disaster, no war that's affecting supply, that our gas prices are pushing above $4 a gallon? It's not even spring break or the summer travel season, which is when price hikes normally take affect. Why is it when the nation is in the worst financial state it's ever seen are drug and oil companies posting record profits?

On a similar note, we've just been informed that AT&T will be instituting download limits on the internet, set at a measly 150gb. Go over that limit and they charge you exorbitant fees. They claim that the average person won't get anywhere near that. Well, I hope you don't have kids, or like music, movies, skype, email, or have a business that is in any way connected to the internet.

 

[bailadora]

Because rape and pillage is the order of the day in corporate America. Why is it, when there's no oil shortage, no disaster, no war that's affecting supply, that our gas prices are pushing above $4 a gallon? It's not even spring break or the summer travel season, which is when price hikes normally take affect. Why is it when the nation is in the worst financial state it's ever seen are drug and oil companies posting record profits?

On a similar note, we've just been informed that AT&T will be instituting download limits on the internet, set at a measly 150gb. Go over that limit and they charge you exorbitant fees. They claim that the average person won't get anywhere near that. Well, I hope you don't have kids, or like music, movies, skype, email, or have a business that is in any way connected to the internet.

I dunno. I may not always like the prices some drug companies charge, but most can make a case for trying to partially recoup R&D as well as trial test funding. But this? No justification whatsoever. None. Zilch. Nada. Noodle.

I'd not heard that about AT&T. Great.

 

[Bottomlover]

I believe the compounding pharmacies will be able to continue making the drug. I think there was an issue with some insurance companies and the compounding pharmacies, and this is probably about that.

 

[Bottomlover]

Here's a link to an article that says the FDA will not go after compounding pharmacies:
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/lifes...-pharmacists-can-continue-to-compo-ar-939765/

Bailadora, I agree this is insane and a product of failed shareholder capitalism and a failed healthcare system.

 

[Bottomlover]

Sorry, you've got me on a rant. What about the new prostate cancer drug that medicare (that's you and me ) is going to pay for that costs $93, 000 and extends the life of patients by 4 months? This is only an example of what's coming with the government in the healthcare business.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

Here's a link to an article that says the FDA will not go after compounding pharmacies:
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/lifes...-pharmacists-can-continue-to-compo-ar-939765/

That's great... but I'm curious to see how this will work in practice. I'm sure most doctors will stick with the $20 compound... but will all doctors automatically order the $20 version over the $1,500 version? Especially given the valid fear of lawsuits many obs have?*

Will pregnant women have to argue about where their drug comes from? Pregnancy does wacky things to your judgement; even when the rational side of your brain tells you that something is safe (one tiny sip of champagne at a wedding at seven months, for example), the paranoid part of your brain can kick in and tell you that it isn't safe AT ALL.

I can see many women becoming convinced that the $1,500 drug is somehow better than the pharmacist compound. They might pay they extra; if they don't and something goes wrong (please note that I don't think those two things are related!), they'll probably never forgive themselves for skimping on their shot.

It's a shitty situation all around.


*I can totally see a doctor fearing a lawsuit relying on his or her prescription of a "non-standard" progesterone shot, and I can see a lawsuit including that charge; the suit probably won't succeed, but the obs I know talk about how the lawsuits are so stressful they'll go to great lengths to avoid them.

 

[NippleMuncher]

And they wonder why people are trying to get the drugs and health care outside of this country. The drug companies are trying to scare you into a quality issue with "foreign" products, when in reality, they are the very same drugs produced by the very same companies. Capitalism at it's finest!

 

[BertrandRussell]

And they wonder why people are trying to get the drugs and health care outside of this country. The drug companies are trying to scare you into a quality issue with "foreign" products, when in reality, they are the very same drugs produced by the very same companies. Capitalism at it's finest!

Actually, this is government interference at its finest. In a reasonably managed capitalist system, the two manufacturers would have to compete head to head on a level playing field. If the government would stick to just preventing fraud and other crimes in the market, we would be able to choose the cheaper drug. We consumers would win.

The problem is that govenment bureaucrats think that they know how to make choices for you and I better than we would. Rather than simply promoting an open marketplace with well-informed consumers, they try to make decisions for us. They give some company a semi-monopoly. Then prices rise.

 

[newlegz]

1. Yes, totally ridiculous
2. Lawsuit/ concerned mothers is a great comment. Probably true. I'd also add concern about the relationship between the doctors, insurance companies, and the drug companies.
3. Before you whine about the FDA, read The Jungle by Sinclair. I like knowing there are standards for my food and drugs. And the "capitalist system" really isnt the best way to ensure that. Look at Wal-Mart. In many ways, and according to some economists, its killing the American economy because of its demands on suppliers to continue, year after year, to lower costs. Capitalism and big business looks to the bottom line at all costs. No concern for the consumer as long as they keep buying; and Americans do, they keep buying themselves out of blue-collar manufacturing jobs.
4. On the other hand, we need both. Look at allergy medicine- the market went OTC and there are now three different choices for consumers and generics for two of those choices. However, we know that these pills are safe because they had to pass FDA standards.
5. FDA's policies- esp. on patents on medication- ensure that drug companies will continue to invent drugs to cure illness. As it is, companies only research products that will make them money, why do you think there are so many pills for ED? The patent protection helps ensure that the companies make a profit and that they will research beyond male impotency. Normally you're paying for their research.

Bailadora's example is obviously an example of a company finding a way to work that system. And this is where govt needs to be stronger to whip them back into line, because as Tatyana pointed out, the consumer might not know enough or be too afraid to put their dollar votes in the right big business pocket. I mean would you trust your neighbors to make the right medical decisions for you?

 

[NippleMuncher]

Before you whine about the FDA, read The Jungle by Sinclair. I like knowing there are standards for my food and drugs. And the "capitalist system" really isnt the best way to ensure that.

The FDA was originally founded to protect the consumer, however it has merely become a pawn for sale to the highest bidder. They expertly maintain the guise of regulation and standards for the good of the masses, though that is far from what is actually going on behind the scenes.

Interesting that you bring up Walmart as some bastion of corporate integrity. Please! Their business strategy has NOTHING to do with providing low prices to the consumer, it is completely about maximizing profits by dictating to suppliers how they shall conduct business and what price they shall sell their products to Walmart for. This hasn't resulted in lower prices to the consumer, this has resulted in lower quality products.

 

[Mac98]

This is where my "Where Are We" thread comes in...

There's a very famous Southpark episode called "douche vs. turd" that I find very amusing where SP Elementary must vote for what they want their school mascot to be, but they can only decide between a Turd sandwich or a Douchebag. Remnds me a lot of American elections. You either get to vote for the corrupt, rich asshole or the greedy, stubborn, dictative retard!

I feel really bad for you guys. We don't have it perfect here in Canada either, but I'm so thankful that our healthcare is better (Although, you WILL have to wait about 16 hours at the emergency if anything happens to you... 16 hours sitting on a chair is about the equivalent of driving a screwdriver through your eyesockets).

I feel for you guys, I truely do...

 

[rosco rathbone]

Welcome to the modern neoliberal free market society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_rent

 

[newlegz]

The FDA was originally founded to protect the consumer, however it has merely become a pawn for sale to the highest bidder. They expertly maintain the guise of regulation and standards for the good of the masses, though that is far from what is actually going on behind the scenes.

Interesting that you bring up Walmart as some bastion of corporate integrity. Please! Their business strategy has NOTHING to do with providing low prices to the consumer, it is completely about maximizing profits by dictating to suppliers how they shall conduct business and what price they shall sell their products to Walmart for. This hasn't resulted in lower prices to the consumer, this has resulted in lower quality products.

Actually, I wasnt holding up wal-mart.... I was offering an example of how the American Consumer is primarily price driven (over other interests) and that because companies like wal-mart are about maximizing profits, you cant expect them to police themselves hence the need for federal regulation. You concede to the lower quality...which is precisely what I'm saying. Companies care about bottom line. Consumers care more about price than quality (overall).

So applying that to drug companies, it would say that w/o the FDA consumers would risk quality and safety of drugs to pay less money. Perhaps a better example would be those who seek plastic surgery across the boarder with disastrous results because of the lower price.