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Old 01-22-2019, 08:57 PM
 
16,825 posts, read 17,672,880 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Toyman at Jewel Lake View Post
The cost of developing new drugs and medications is huge-often in the billions of dollar by the time the cost of "dead end" research that doesn't produce a salable product, the cost of years of animal and human testing is included and the cost of production facilities is factored in.

These costs are born nearly exclusively by American consumers, insurance companies and taxpayers. Without someone paying-these new, lifesaving treatments will never make it to market. So, US citizens pay the development costs-then after these costs are incurred, the drugs are offered to the rest of the world at a a great discount-none of the development cost, simply the production costs.

Now, the question is-how do we get the rest of the world to help bear the costs of developing these lifesaving treatments?
Why? Is the 45% profit margin Pfizer made the last few years not enough? Pharmacist one of the most profitable businesses in the world, the reason drugs cost so much in the US has nothing to do with the cost of development and everything to do with the legislation written solely to make pharma in the US fat.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-28212223
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Old 01-22-2019, 08:59 PM
 
16,825 posts, read 17,672,880 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by James Bond 007 View Post
AFAIK, every nation has their own drug standards, it might be hard to get a drug company to conform their testing procedures to fit every nation's rules.

That said, so many drug companies these days are multinationals, it's probably a moot point. Roche and Novartis are Swiss, Sanofi is French, GlaxoSmithKline is British, and so on, and so forth. They all probably have testing labs all over the world.
Nearly all pharma companies are multinational. It’s not about standards, it about the fact that they are one of the largest lobbyists of the US government.
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Old 01-22-2019, 09:05 PM
 
8,104 posts, read 3,944,083 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lkb0714 View Post
Nearly all pharma companies are multinational. It’s not about standards, it about the fact that they are one of the largest lobbyists of the US government.
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Old 01-22-2019, 09:20 PM
 
Location: Haiku
7,132 posts, read 4,745,400 times
Reputation: 10327
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dark Enlightenment View Post
You are overstating the case a bit here. People outside America do often pay less, but it's a lot more than just production costs. And the reason they pay less is that their governments negotiate lower prices from the drug companies. Why doesn't the American government do the same? These companies are making huge profits.
Why? Because corruption in American politics has been built-in to the system thanks to SCOTUS and thanks to gutless politicians who think that big companies have equal, if not more, rights than the American citizen. To stop this we need to: (a) reform campaign finance, (b) pass legislation or amend the constitution that 1st Amendment rights do not entitle corporations to buy politicians in the name of "freedom of expression", and (c) enhance the ethics-in-government laws so that big-corp lobbyists do not become political appointees in the executive branch.

Basically, all the above would be draining the swamp, something Trump promised us. But it seems to have gotten worse under Trump. He never followed through with getting Pharma influence out of government, they still dictate prices that our government will pay for Medicare, VA, and Medicaid drugs, and because those three are so big, it sets the standard for what the rest of us pay.
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Old 01-23-2019, 05:53 AM
 
Location: Great Britain
27,019 posts, read 13,262,515 times
Reputation: 19246
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toyman at Jewel Lake View Post
The cost of developing new drugs and medications is huge-often in the billions of dollar by the time the cost of "dead end" research that doesn't produce a salable product, the cost of years of animal and human testing is included and the cost of production facilities is factored in.

These costs are born nearly exclusively by American consumers, insurance companies and taxpayers. Without someone paying-these new, lifesaving treatments will never make it to market. So, US citizens pay the development costs-then after these costs are incurred, the drugs are offered to the rest of the world at a a great discount-none of the development cost, simply the production costs.

Now, the question is-how do we get the rest of the world to help bear the costs of developing these lifesaving treatments?
There are large pharma and bio-tech companies outside the US, and drug patents are international so companies have the exclusive rights for twenty years and can even apply for an extension on this period.

Government medical research funding, medical charities and universities across the world carry out research, and countries across the world do pay for US pharma patents.

However the vast majority of drugs are generic, and there patent has expired, allowing other companies to make cheaper versions.

The reason medical drugs are expensive in the US is due to evergreening whereby drug companies change the formula slightly or improve a drug and take out patent anfer patent. Debranding is another trick, whereby after a drugs patent runs out, they take it off the market, and launch it again, thereby getting around most regulations regading pricing, indeed debranded drugs can ber sold at thousands of percent more than the original drug. Drug companies also spend a fortune on pointless advertising, indeed advertising and marketing is one of the main cost factors after research.

It's greedy pharma that is keeping pharma prices high in the US and not other countries.
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Old 01-23-2019, 06:28 AM
 
22,923 posts, read 15,418,292 times
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I don't think this thread is going the direction the misinformed O/P intended.

A good sign American people are finally waking up.
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Old 01-23-2019, 06:41 AM
 
20,955 posts, read 8,618,580 times
Reputation: 14050
Quote:
Originally Posted by sean1the1 View Post
What makes it even worse is these people are now in our freaking politics. there's no way for Americans to ever have any control over out healthcare as long as people like Rick Scott who we know has robbed Medicare to make his millions are running out country.
Even worse.....look who elected him....now to the Senate!
Romney in there too!

If you look close you will see a lot more Health Care bigwigs inside DC....and/or lobbying it.

I don't blame Scott. Snakes and crooks are always with us. I blame those who are ignorant (or else want punishment) and elect these people.
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Old 01-23-2019, 06:44 AM
 
20,955 posts, read 8,618,580 times
Reputation: 14050
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkb0714 View Post
Nearly all pharma companies are multinational. It’s not about standards, it about the fact that they are one of the largest lobbyists of the US government.
Well, I'd say it's about the fact that certain Americans like the OP don't know the facts so their votes can be easily manipulated to say it is the fault of someone else other than themselves and their voting record.
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Old 01-23-2019, 07:29 AM
 
Location: Swiftwater, PA
18,756 posts, read 18,035,386 times
Reputation: 14747
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brave New World View Post
There are large pharma and bio-tech companies outside the US, and drug patents are international so companies have the exclusive rights for twenty years and can even apply for an extension on this period.

Government medical research funding, medical charities and universities across the world carry out research, and countries across the world do pay for US pharma patents.

However the vast majority of drugs are generic, and there patent has expired, allowing other companies to make cheaper versions.

The reason medical drugs are expensive in the US is due to evergreening whereby drug companies change the formula slightly or improve a drug and take out patent anfer patent. Debranding is another trick, whereby after a drugs patent runs out, they take it off the market, and launch it again, thereby getting around most regulations regading pricing, indeed debranded drugs can ber sold at thousands of percent more than the original drug. Drug companies also spend a fortune on pointless advertising, indeed advertising and marketing is one of the main cost factors after research.

It's greedy pharma that is keeping pharma prices high in the US and not other countries.
Of course there are some pharmaceutical companies that have higher profits than other companies. Some companies take risk trying to develop new medications and some of those fail to go to market.

In the US we rely on our FDA to police our pharmaceutical industry. The 'bible' that the FDA uses to regulate the industry is the CGMP: https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/Developmen.../ucm090016.htm Our pharmaceutical companies then write their own regulations based on the guidance in the Federal CGMP (it stands for: Current Good Manufacturing Practice). Wikipedia can give you a better understanding of those regulations and the principals that the pharmaceutical companies live under: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_m...uring_practice.

Of course almost all other countries have their equivalent of our FDA. In some countries the rules are not as strict and in some they can be even more strict. So, if you have an international company that wants to sell its products to a country that has stricter regulations, then their products have to meet those requirements. Of course it all cost money to comply. It isn't only that; but every single complaint must be investigated and that cost money.

Recently there were several recalls of blood pressure medication from China: https://qz.com/1350657/valsartan-cou...re-medication/. Some were found to be contaminated with known carcinogens. That is why we always have to be vigilant and sometimes that vigilance cost money.
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Old 01-23-2019, 07:35 AM
 
Location: Great Britain
27,019 posts, read 13,262,515 times
Reputation: 19246
Quote:
Originally Posted by fisheye View Post
Of course there are some pharmaceutical companies that have higher profits than other companies. Some companies take risk trying to develop new medications and some of those fail to go to market.

In the US we rely on our FDA to police our pharmaceutical industry. The 'bible' that the FDA uses to regulate the industry is the CGMP: https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/Developmen.../ucm090016.htm Our pharmaceutical companies then write their own regulations based on the guidance in the Federal CGMP (it stands for: Current Good Manufacturing Practice). Wikipedia can give you a better understanding of those regulations and the principals that the pharmaceutical companies live under: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_m...uring_practice.

Of course almost all other countries have their equivalent of our FDA. In some countries the rules are not as strict and in some they can be even more strict. So, if you have an international company that wants to sell its products to a country that has stricter regulations, then their products have to meet those requirements. Of course it all cost money to comply. It isn't only that; but every single complaint must be investigated and that cost money.

Recently there were several recalls of blood pressure medication from China: https://qz.com/1350657/valsartan-cou...re-medication/. Some were found to be contaminated with known carcinogens. That is why we always have to be vigilant and sometimes that vigilance cost money.


All countries have to abide by regulatory bodies, however drugs that are generally cleared by a well respected body such as the US FDA don't usually have much problem in relation to most western countries regulatory bodies.

In Europe the equivalent to the FDA is the European Medicines Agency and in the UK it's the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, but as you rightly pOINT out all countries have their equivalent organisations.

Last edited by Brave New World; 01-23-2019 at 08:03 AM..
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