[TheForge] New Pharmaceuticals (was: Doug Hendrickson)

[Bill Alleman]

Bruce Freeman wrote on 9/30/2004, 9:44 AM:

 > 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.


1) Canada isn't the only country with significantly cheaper prescription 
  drugs. They're just the closest.
2) The drug companies aren't run by fools: they don't sell to all those 
countries at a net loss. Either the US is subsidizing them, or we're 
just getting screwed (with the blessing of Congress). Neither is acceptable.
3) Canada also has a distribution chain. Their middlemen also are open 
24/7 only if it is profitable to do so.
4) If the markup were all from the middlemen, then drug companies 
wouldn't be lobbying so hard against re-importation (since their profit 
wouldn't change), and the US government, under pressure from those 
lobbyists, wouldn't be putting up such a stink about it in the 
disingenuous name of safety (Canada isn't exactly a third-world 
country). And US websites would be able to sell for the same prices as 
Canadian websites, which would thus allow the marketers to avoid the 
glare of all the US governmental saber-rattling, which brings us to...
5) You mention it yourself: Canada negotiates prices. We don't need to 
lift price restrictions, we need to start by lifting Congressionally 
imposed _negotiation_ restrictions: "YOU WILL PAY WHAT THEY DEMAND AND 
YOU WILL LIKE IT!" Kinda socialism, after all.
6) The whole world gets what we pay for.

All IMHO, of course.
-- 

   BikerBill=-                 ©¿©¬
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