[TheForge] New Pharmaceuticals (was: Doug Hendrickson)

[Jerry Smith]

         If a drug doesn't make it through the trials and is rejected by 
all concerned doesn't the company write these off on their taxes?
         Aspirin is a wonder drug, if it had been discovered last year, it 
still would be in the research and the beginning trial stage and highly 
restricted.
         The Government of Canada is not a socialist state, it has 
socialized medicine.

         If I need to move some equipment, I could do it with a Hummer (the 
real one, not the H2) or with a Honda Element. Hummer $105K, Honda 
$19K.  Both work well for the job, one is gross over kill, while the other 
may have to strain a little. We have many drugs already on the market that 
would well, but people have to change their lives some to make them work. 
Then we have new drugs that don't require a life change for medical 
reasons, but a life change for economics, because it very hard to afford 
the drugs.
         When I started to work at the local giant university medical care 
was free, and scripts had a buck or two charge on them or no charge. When I 
left they were talking deductibles and large copays.
         From what I hear now, they have large deductibles, big copays. 
Guess what: they have a huge research hospital on campus. The university 
makes a large profit from the hospital, the employees get scr##'d with all 
of this wealth going on. I am glad I retired and moved to Canada.

Jerry



>I work in the pharmaceutical industry, so I may be biased a bit,
>but...
>
>I want to point out that some folks out (and I don't mean on this list)
>there are either very confused or quite hypocritical when it comes to
>drug prices.
>
>If we want new drugs to reverse or prevent the scourges of mankind,
>SOMEONE has to discover them, develop them, prove safety and efficacy,
>do stability tests of the dosage forms, and bring them to market.  Drugs
>can be ten years from discovery to availability.  I understand that only
>one of ten or more drug candidates ever makes it to market.  That means
>the some portion of the research must be done on the other nine or so
>candidates, with no income resulting for the pharmaceutical company.
>This is a very high-risk business.  Accordingly, it attracts investors
>ONLY by being a very high profit business.
>
>The US pharmaceutical industry has been quite effective at bringing
>new, effective drugs to market.  Do we want to change this record?  I
>don't!
>
>There's no question that pharmaceuticals are high profit.  Double digit
>profit is expected.  There ARE some misconceptions about how drug
>companies spend their incomes, however.  I've seen it asserted that more
>is spent on sales than on research.  That's bullshit.  Almost EVERYTHING
>a drug company does BESIDES manufacturing and sales IS research.  (Okay,
>there's overhead like Personnel, Administratration, Purchasing, etc.,
>which only SERVE research, and there are departments like "Regulatory"
>which provide the documentation to get drugs approved by the FDA.  Those
>aren't strictly research, but research WITHOUT those functions available
>would be useless.  Which is one reason drug companies are BIG.)
>
>As to the business of cheaper drugs from Canada.  That is a product of
>socialist medicine in Canada.  The Canadian governments negotiates drug
>prices, much as a large pharmacy chain might do.  Apparently, they
>negotiate quite well, and get low prices.  (ANY seller must view an
>order for a million widgets differently from an order for one widget,
>and will adjust prices accordingly.)
>
>In the USA, much of what you spend on drugs is middleman profits.
>After all, you NEED someone to fill those prescriptions, to be open
>24/7, etc.  (Some of those costs can be reduced by discount suppliers,
>like ExpressScripts.com.)  So, when people go to Canada and bring back
>drugs, they are bypassing the American distribution system.  They are
>NOT particularly hurting the drug companies.  This is NOT an issue of
>greedy drug companies.
>
>In sum, if you want cheap drug prices, go ahead and put price
>restrictions in place, or socialize US drug development.  If the
>government is in charge of drug development, you'll have wonderful new
>drugs available:
>For headache:  aspirin
>for menstrual cramps:  aspirin
>for aches and pains:  aspirin
>for fever: aspirin
>to prevent heart disease:  aspirin
>to prevent stroke:  aspirin
>
>You get what you pay for.
>
>Bruce
>NJ
>
>
>
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