That post (I have seen it several times before) is a little simplistic. Because of the extraordinary cost of many pharmaceuticals, it will find traction among those who are ignorant of the economics of cost of actual production of drugs, or other goods for that matter. For example: The essential ingredient of a pencil (the carbon) is many times less that the cost of a pencil. I don't think Ticonderoga is scheming to defraud the general population.
That said, it is a little strange that companies can sell the same drugs abroad for much less than they charge in the U.S. while they lobby congress to prevent U.S. citizens from obtaining their drugs from Canada. This "creaming" of the market is not unique to drugs. Check the price of sneakers in the U.S. compared to other countries.
I'm stymied as to how people expect to get safer drugs and better care with socialization.
right now, the capitalist countries produce the lion's share of the research because they can fund new research with their profits. True execs make big salaries, but these represent a paltry amount of over net profit....a huge amount goes back into research which is why the world now benefits from so much innovation.
another issue is pharmaceutical care.
the average MD has one years training in pharmaceuticals,
the average pharmacist has 6 years
the government take over is going to mean big changes here and not good ones.
chiefly because as we age, or if we are taking multiple things we need someone with expertise to supervise what we take and how things interact.
the people most capanle of catching these things are the pharmacists....doctor prescribe conflicting drugs regularly and the average day in the life of a pharmacist includes catching many toxic combos and preventing them,
for a good window into all this go read on some pharmacist forums...I kile "the angry pharmacist"...he makes many good points.
So merry,you do have to agree tho on one thing,ya cant say that the pharma drugs are overpriced come on now.
Check out what Canada just did to the pharmacies
Any reduction in the cost of prescription drugs for the tens of thousands of our members' employees and their retirees would be helpful in this regard," said Nantais.
And Ontario Nurses' Association president Linda Haslam-Stroud noted that rising pharmaceutical costs have been consuming a large portion of precious health-care system dollars.
TORONTO — Ontario's plan to scrap pharmacy allowances for generic drugs will inflict suffering on both drug stores and consumers as the industry hemorrhages jobs and cuts services, pharmacy retailers say.
Shoppers Drug Mart (TSX:SC), where prescription sales account for about half of revenue, said Thursday it has already started to "dis-invest" in Ontario due to the plan, which the government says will cut the cost of generic drugs sold in the province in half.
President and CEO Jurgen Schreiber said his company has already reworked its business model to cut store hours and new store openings in moves that will also result in job losses.
He said the funding Shoppers received from the allowances permitted the company to offer a number of customer services at its 600 Ontario outlets, including free delivery and late-night hours. Both of those services will be cut.
"What service can you offer when you have $13 to $14 (in) cost and get paid $8 in the future?" he said.
The chain also plans to cut back on hiring and cut a summer apprenticeship program that would have hired 350 pharmacy students this summer.
"We don't need so many pharmacists anymore because we will not open so many stores anymore," he said, without indicating how many of the company's 25,000 employees in Ontario might lose their jobs.
Despite the warnings from Shoppers and some analysts, the move was welcomed by many employers and by the province's nurses.
http://autos.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100408/pharmacists_costs_100408/20100408/?hub=OttawaHome
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and remind everyone that the cost of the active ingredient of a medication hardly tells the tale of cost.
cost is a factor of millions of dollars of research, hundreds of millions per drug that gets approved that must take place before a drug reaches market. Inherent in these costs are the myriad researchers all of whom are well paid and want their own health care, paychecks and pensions.
cost is also based on the factories that must be built, and the workers there that want health care, paychecks and pensions.
cost is also based on the distribution channels of planes trains ships atc, and the people working on them, who also want, health care, paychecks and pensions...
cost is also based on the pharmacy distribution centers, the mail carriers, the pharmacist and cashiers, who also all want their own health care, paychecks and pensions.
at the end of the day, the cost of drugs has much more to do with all of these than it has to do with the cost of the raw ingredients, the molecules that are combimed to make the substance.
I think some folks want to demonize corporations and prove how greedy they are but tend to forget how much things really cost or the fact that without all the research and the great distribution systems we have that many more folks would be dead and many diseases would still languish without cures, that currently are being treated and cured.
Let's not be short sighted about the agenda of the people putting out numbers like those from costco....they may be trying to get the public to believe no human beings populate our system, our research, or our distribution...and this is not the truth.
mb
Scientists have found that a "café-style" diet of fatty, sugary food results in compulsive overeating among rats and causes neuro-chemical changes to the brain that mimic the sort of alterations in the human brain brought about by addiction to heroin and cocaine............
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/junk-food-could-be-addictive-like-heroin-1929982.html
Their is usually 2 sides too every story and yes ,we need do need certain pharma drugs ,but corruption is everywhere,even in the health food business,but not on a big scale.Some multivitamins brands are even dangerous with hih levels of compounds and fillers
While I hear what you're saying, there is another side. The amount of money spent on just me is astronomical. The drugs that have been provided for my TX at NO COST to me cost a pile of R&D, clinical studies, etc; I want Phars to make tons of money so they can continue the high cost of Research, clinical trials, and associated liabilities.
Kidneys at Costco. Who would have thunk it? They really are a full service store.
shortage in organs for donation -- the U.S. waiting list for kidneys has more than 80,000 names on it -- has led to a huge demand for cheap black market organs. The so-called "kidney mafia" includes doctors performing illegal transplants, organ hunters searching for donors, and middleman brokers such as Rosenbaum who match recipients with doctors and donors.
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http://www.naturalnews.com/028497_organ_transplants_kidneys.html
this would be funny but I'm not laughing...those numbers are hard to swallow....
of course the costco condom discount won't work for midgets I guess...sigh...
I guess that let's me out....
You're spot on with that one Rocker! The other day I priced the 120 pack of X-Large condoms at CVS and they were over 60 bucks! At Costco only $19.99, so I could afford two packs. Plus the CVS ones are a bit snug. Not so at Costco, where you really do get more for less.