Educate me about prescription drug cost

In My Humble Opinion
1

I suppose this should have been in The BBQ pit, But I will try to remain reasonable/calm/openminded and without too much venom…
The government regulates pretty much everything concerning our personal lives…
So, why are drug companies/manufacturers allowed to charge such outrageous prices for NEEDED medicines ???

WHY do they have to make a profit on a new drug the first
SIX WEEKS???

Would it kill them to wait a year or two???
Sick people arn’t going anywhere. … well at least the ones that don’t die first from waiting to go to a Dr till they can afford to or who take only half the prescribed medicine to make it go further.
It seems to have cost an incredible amount of wasted time and taxpayer money for the government to help children and the elderly obtain NEEDED medicine… when all that’s really needed is AFFORDABLE medicine.

Why is that so impossible???
I took my son to a doctor recently and one precription was $135.00 for an antibiotic.
The other was $76.00 for Flonase.
This merely opens/drys the nasal passages! I can’t imagine what a prescription would cost for
an actual LIFESAVING drug…

That’s over $200.00 just for medicine, the Dr. visit was $150.00

THAT is an average persons TAKEHOME paycheck…

So, please explain, if you can, how this is allowed to continue…

yes, I am aware of supply and demand blah,blah,blah but STILL…
we are talking about lives here… not the latest cell phone.

And NO, I do not want the government to control pharmaceuticals
I just want maybe some price controls…
to end the PRICE GOUGING.

There has to be a simpler answer to this than socialized medicine.

and if at all possible, I really don’t want to hear any smartass remarks from anyone who has a lovely little insurance package at work… some of us DONT…

so please, offer explanations and ideas…
maybe someone on the board can offer some viable solutions… and maybe even FIX this mess… you never know
ps: did I mention the Dr. wants my son to have a $500.00 MRI
to look up his nose…?? …

2

If you don’t have insurance, or don’t have good insurance, make sure you discuss that with your doctor. Discuss what the actual cost to you will be for these drugs and a good doctor should be able to take that into account and recommend less expensive drugs and/or generics. They just aren’t always taking that into account unless you mention it specifically.

Also, sometimes they have samples they can give you, sometimes quite generously or at least so you don’t buy something it turns out doesn’t work for you.

3

Yeah, the samples of Celebrex I got worked like nothing has ever worked in my life.

The prescription was $160 a month.

I’m taking Ibuprofen again.

What does someone do when there are no generics?

4

Unfortunately FilmGeek,
they do like you do, they do without…:frowning:

5

I picked up a brochure for Canada Value Rx. (Yes, they have a website.)

it’s $140 for Celebrex but only $33 for Flonase.

FYI>

6

That’s exactly what they have to do…I work in a retail pharmacy, and I have watched countless people leave needed rx’s because they can’t afford them. It breaks my heart when a mother can’t afford her child’s medicine.

7

I can understand why people get their longterm prescriptions from Canada, but the last I heard our government had shut down a lot of Canadian Rx websites.

Now I’m not sure which ones are even legitimate…:confused:

ps: I did consider going the Canadian way, but we needed the antibiotics…

even after all the views,still no answers or suggestions in fixing this RIPOFF system.
still hoping… ?

8

You could perhaps get your doctor to prescribe something less expensive…something that has a generic for it. Short of insurance coverage, that is about the best you can do

9

I guess this is why I feel so lucky to be living in Australia. We have a prescription scheme whereby depending on your income levels, the most a patient is required to pay for all Government listed drugs (which are most of them) is $A3.70. Some drugs do cost hundreds of dollars but the Government subsidise that cost to allow everyone to be able to afford suitable medication.

10

Hi wendyrules that’s not quite true. If you are a concession card holder, it’s $3.70 but if you don’t hold one you pay a lot more. I think my sister was paying $60 for migraine meds which cost me $3.70.

And not all meds are covered with the concession card. Ritalin is $20 a script while dexamphetamine is $3.70. My kid’s recently been prescribed a medication which is $90 a month’s supply and when strattera comes available here, we will get a trial pack but then we’ll paying through the freaking nose until it goes on the PBS.

It’s still overall an OK scheme and I like the safety net where if you are paying full price once you go over the $500 mark, you get a concession card.

And I am not fond of the drug companies either and especially not fond of the pressure being put on Australia to change our PBS system.

11

Hi Primaflora. Oops! Yes, you’re quite right. It’s just that I hold a concession card and never have to pay the full cost for medication. But I see where you’re coming from. I do realise that not all meds are covered, but for the most part the Government does subsidise them, don’t they?

Anyway, sorry to hear that you’re going to be paying big bucks until the Government puts Strattera onto the PBS.

12

The one thing people seem to forget about the drug company profits is this.

These drugs that save lives (or give you a boner) would not exist today if the potential for significant profits wasn’t there to fund the research required to develop the drug. Drug development is a crapshoot. It is a high risk investment, and requires overall a high return.

You cannot have the advanced drugs without the high profits.
The alternative is that they would not exist.

Additionally, perscripton drugs and medical costs in general have less downward pressure on prices than other services since over 95% of the cost of these services are not borne by the user. So price is rarely a consideration when selecting medical services. In a free market society, prices will easily keep increasing under that concept.

What is ironic in the debate about rising medical costs is the hue and cry about people going without medical insurance. This development, while absolutely difficult for the people involved, is actually the first needed step to get medical services spiraling costs under control.

13

Why do they charge so much? Short answer - because they can.

Long answer:

You’ve got to remember that to successfully bring one drug to market costs approximately (IIRC) $450 million. This is after 10-15 years of clinical trials, making sure the drug does what it’s supposed to, doesn’t kill anybody in the process, and isn’t the size of an ostrich egg.

On top of that, there’s the drugs that weren’t successful. There’s something like 3,500 concepts that get started. Of these, 5 make it to clinical trials. Of those 5, 1 will make it to market. Of all the drugs that make it to market, less than 1/2 will make enough to cover R&D. So the successful drug has to pay for all the drugs and all the ideas that didn’t make it.

The United States is one of the few countries that does not regulate prices. Some say that’s a good thing, others don’t. But something like 60% of the world’s medicines come from this country, and a lot of people are of the opinion that it’s the lack of price controls that allow for that. Higher prices bring higher profits, which allows the company to invest more in R&D. Right now, I work in a not-for-profit research institution. Biggest problem? Experienced, able, and innovative scientists are constantly being lured out to work in the private (read for-profit) sector for higher pay and better benefits (that’s not to say, however, scientists in not-for-profit jobs are incompetent. There are many who stay out of a sense of doing something that is a Benefit to Society. Sadly, they are in the minority. They have my complete and unreserved respect.)

Don’t forget regulatory issues. Drugs approved today in the United States sometimes have to wait 5-10 years before being approved in Canada.

If you want the best care available, you have to pay for it.

Finally, these companies aren’t being run by Scrooge McDucks in lab coats. The CEOs, boards of directors, presidents, VPs, etc. are all beholden to the stockholders. If their company isn’t making money that they can pass on, they fold and no one gets any more viagra.

All that being said…I am of the opinion that there are plenty of spots where pharmaceutical companies can trim the budget a little. A CEO doesn’t need to make $30 million a year to do a good job. Hell, I’ll do it for $100,000; I’m not greedy. Advertising? Take it off the airwaves, limit it to one page of print. Same goes for “educational seminars” for doctors that consist of 1/2 an hour of fluff about the drug and 3 days of scuba diving and caviar.

There are problems with all health care systems. Canada’s is slow and unreliable. But everybody is covered. You might have to wait 4 hours in the waiting room, but eventually, the doctor will burn off those warts for you. The United States’ is expensive as hell, and there are millions not covered. You can get the warts burned off in 30 minutes zip-flat, but it’ll cost you $300.

There is no easy solution. Price controls will bring the cost of the drugs down, but it’ll take a lot longer to get the next Flonase out to the market. You ask why they’re allowed to charge such exorbitant prices for needed medicines, I’ll turn the question around: why is the government allowed to deny NEEDED health care to millions of citizens? Because someone at the top decided that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. They get more votes that way. Some countries believe that the needs of the many can be achieved by granting care to everyone, thereby denying new, potentially life-saving and timely care to the few. Your country has decided that the needs of the many are best realized by enabling the development of the newest and best care possible, thereby denying coverage to the few.

Get involved. Write your member of Congress. Sign petitions. Talk to your doctor about generics. Do price comparisons of various pharmacies (don’t forget, they tack their own profits on to the drug prices as well). The answer to quality universal care is out there somewhere; we just need people to keep looking.

In the meantime, there are programs run by the drug companies for people who can’t afford it. They’re not available to everyone, and they don’t provide all possible drugs, but they do help. You can get a list at http://www.helpingpatients.org/

Best of luck.