COMMENTS:
We should be charged the price determined by the market. Unfortunately government interference and corporate greed make this impossible. We're also a nation of pill poppers so we can thank our fellow Americans for driving up demand.
"I need a pill for my heartburn" NO YOU DON'T, YOU NEED A F__KING DIET!
(vote rendered by a man who pays almost $5000 a year for one medical prescription alone, and is NONE TOO KEEN on the idea)
Yes. Big Pharma cries how great costs are, but the annual profits continue to be obscene. They are not scraping by.
What is reasonable? How much is spent on R&D? Should those costs be recouped for future R&D?
Pharmaceuticals should not be able to benefit financially for the work done in Universities that are publicly funded however.
thc: Unfortunately, the only "government interference" in prescription drug policy has been on the side of monopolistic markets and gouging American citizens.
And, yes, we overuse drugs, but demand also creates volume, and volume in economies of scale, ordinarily results in lower prices, not higher ones. You'd think that the supply-demand equation would translate to scarcity and higher prices, and that might be true if the U.S. was the only drug market. In a global market, the largest user generally gets the best prices for anything, based upon volumetric purchasing.
^ So what the heck is the FDA doing?
Exactly, thc.
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