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The Great Generic Drug Rip-Off
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Big Pharma has followed the only avenue left to reap billion-dollar profits: jack up the price of generics.
What happens when rapacious cartels run out of billion-dollar-profit products? They jack up the price of what was previously low-cost. And why are they able to raise prices by 388% to 8,000% at will? Because they can. That's the whole point in having a cartel that is enabled and enforced by the cartel's toadies and apologists in the central state (federal government): price increases can be imposed on the government and the private sector at will.
I was alerted to the extraordinary price increases in widely used generic drugs by Ishabaka (M.D.), who forwarded this fact sheet issued by the office of Senator Bernie Sanders: (Chart is reproduced below)
"Rep. Elijah E. Cummings and Senator Bernard Sanders sent letters to 14 drug manufacturers requesting information about the escalating prices of generic drugs used to treat everything from common medical conditions to life-threatening illnesses. Data was provided by the Healthcare Supply Chain Association (HSCA) on recent purchases by group purchasing organizations (GPOs) of ten generic drugs."
Here are Ishabaka's comments:
"I'd like to focus on the top one - doxycycline. This is a very effective antibiotic for pneumonia, bronchitis, and sexually transmitted diseases (chlamydia and gonorrhea). Throughout my medical career, it has been a cheap generic drug I used all the time. It's cost has gone up from $20 a prescription to over $1,600 a prescription in the last 12 months.Low-income people used to be able to afford doxycycline, which would stop the spread of these serious, sometimes life-threatening infections. Now they can't, and there is no drug as good as doxycycline available cheaply. I think this is an outrage. Imagine if a generic bottle of aspirin increased in price from $10 a bottle to $800 a bottle in 12 months - Americans would be marching in protest."
The murky world of drug pricing is attracting some much-needed attention:
What politicos and the mainstream media cannot dare state openly is obvious: the system of drug development and generic drug pricing/distribution is broken in the U.S., and the core cause is the cartel-like structure of Big Pharma and the rest of the healthcare system.
Though nobody in officialdom or the mainstream media can say this publicly, the reason for these outrageous increases is painfully obvious: As Big Pharma's stable of billion-dollar drugs slip off patent, their profit pipeline is weakening.
The pipeline of potentially billion-dollar-profit drugs (so-called blockbuster drugs) is thin. So Big Pharma has followed the only avenue left to reap billion-dollar profits: jack up the price of generics, and push the government to pay the outrageous increases via Medicare and Medicaid and force the increases on private insurers and providers. If we just roll over and accept 8,000% increases, we deserve the corrupt, rapacious system we have.
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I feel like Pharma is the one industry that doesnt get enough bashhin from the ZH crowd, they are just as bad as any bank or oil company as far as shady dealings and bailouts.
All drug dealers start gouging once they've got ya hooked.
First one is free.
Just damn and to think, the last day to sign up for ObamaCare, was yesterday.
Blame it on my ADD baby ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS6470AO3FQ
How can they do it?
They own lots of congressmen.
Welcome to the neo-fascist empire.
We ain't in the club, time to change the rules ;-)
Shummer is getting right on this after he lowers air fares
"The Obama administration and members of Congress are pressing India to curb its generic medication industry. The move comes at the behest of U.S. pharmaceutical companies, which have drowned out warnings from public health experts that inexpensive drugs from India are essential to providing life-saving treatments around the world."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/obama-generic-drugs_n_3513011.html
if only there were a way that you could print your own pharmaceuticals
http://io9.com/5928050/3d-printing-technology-could-let-you-print-your-p...
“We took their mandate and put all focus on the wrong problem – healthcare reform,” - Schumer
We being the operative word...and fucked it up (affordability & accessability wise) worse than ever before.
Nice going.
But there is a silver lining, with him, Harkin, Gruber and 0bama coming right out and saying they fucked up and lied through their teeth in order to cram it down everyones throat, the myth of Nanny-Statist technocratic overlords being all caring & benevolent is now, dead.
Its really a good thing, it just takes time to sink in ;-)
Name me one genuine medical condition (withdrawal does not count) which is caused by a lack of drugs.
I'll have to get back to you after my coffee kicks in.
Oh, you said genuine ;-)
Excruciating pain during and after surgery?
polio, tetanus, ... ?
Dying from an infection.
Yup, the "lawmakers" of the U.S. CONgress are going to get right on it - just as soon as they finish counting the un-marked bill stuffed suitcases from Big Pharma lobbyists and taking that paid vacation in the tropics.
Symptomatic of prohibition. Competition mitigates "gouging"
Maybe a little more competition in the generic drug space would help keep prices down. Of course, our FDA makes it hard for new entrants to bring in generics...
Hmm, fancy that! Amazing!
* * *
Pro Tip: Buy these drugs when traveling overseas.
Cartels are only able to be maintained through government force, by restricting new entrants into the market. I imagine a world where billions that might be invested in twitter went to new, efficient, pharma start-ups that could drive prices back down...yeah I must be dreaming.
I imagine a world where billions that might be invested in twitter went to new, efficient, pharma start-ups...
So do a lot of Voluntaryists. Let's ditch the state and get busy!
I think the new Big Pharma, Regeneron, Biogen, Celgene, etc., innovation will out pace the old big pharma. Old Big Pharama is in a lot of trouble, cartel will collapse as they try to squeeze what little profit they have out of the generics.
Glaxo Smith Klyne, Baxter, and Bill Gates can suck a bag of dicks. How's that? Until these bastards have to dig deeper than petty cash to pay reparations to the families of the maimed and/or deceased, we can not rest.
I've been bashing pharma every chance I get.
They are infinitely worse than the street drug dealers and like bankers, when caught, never go to jail:
One example (of many)
Judge Questions Purdue Pharma Plea Agreement
A federal judge is challenging the plea agreement entered into earlier in 2007 between prosecutors and Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. The Roanoke Times reported on June 20, 2007 ("Oxycontin Agreement Challenged By Judge") that "A federal judge is raising questions about a plea agreement that calls for $634.5 million in fines -- but no jail time -- for the illegal marketing of OxyContin, a powerful painkiller that doubles as a street drug. Before sentencing three Purdue Pharma executives next month, U.S. District Judge James Jones will consider responses to 16 questions he recently submitted to federal prosecutors and company officials. One of the questions: Why should the executives not be sent to jail? 'While it certainly is appropriate for the corporate officials to be held accountable for the actions of the company, a sentence of incarceration ... would be unusual,' prosecutors responded in court filings."
According to the Times, "Following a six-year federal investigation, company president Michael Friedman, chief legal officer Howard Udell and former head of medical affairs Paul Goldenheim agreed to pay a combined $34.5 million in fines. The company will pay another $600 million as part of an agreement that calls for Jones to place its top officials on probation. It's unusual for a judge to have so many questions about a plea agreement. Although Jones asked prosecutors to justify what the plea agreement calls 'non-incarcerative sentences,' it was unclear whether his question indicates any concerns about the lack of jail time."
The Times noted that "Prosecutors agreed that it would be 'legally difficult and burdensome' to identify possible victims of OxyContin abuse in the context of a criminal proceeding against the company. Complicating the issue further is the fact that the guilty pleas by Friedman, Udell and Goldenheim included no admissions that they did anything wrong -- or even knew of wrongdoing by other company officials. Rather, the charges hold them responsible simply because of their positions as top company executives. In the flurry of court filings generated by Jones' list of questions, prosecutors also defended their decision not to seek incarceration. The misdemeanor charges to which the executives pleaded guilty carry up to one year in jail; the company pleaded guilty to a felony charge. Such charges are rarely used in the misbranding of pharmaceuticals, the government stated, and the negotiated plea agreements will 'serve as a strong warning' to other drug companies. In addition to raising questions about jail time, Jones also requested detailed information on Purdue's financial holdings. Some critics have said the monetary penalty to be paid by the company represents just a small fraction of its OxyContin profits. But according to federal prosecutors, the $634.5 million in fines accounts for about 90 percent of the company's profits from the time the drug went on the market in 1996 until 2001. The fine is the country's third largest to be assessed against a pharmaceutical company, according to the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Consumer Litigation."
Back to top
Federal Court Fines Purdue Pharma, ExecutivesThe manufacturer of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, and a few of its executives were allowed to plead guilty in federal court to misleading the public about the drug and were given hefty fines. The Associated Press reported on May 11, 2007 ("OxyContin Maker, Execs Fined $634.5M") that "Purdue Pharma L.P., its president, top lawyer and former chief medical officer will pay $634.5 million in fines for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said. The plea agreement settled a national case and came two days after the Stamford, Conn.-based company agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states and the District of Columbia to settle complaints that it encouraged physicians to overprescribe OxyContin. 'With its OxyContin, Purdue unleashed a highly abusable, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting and unknowing public,' Brownlee said. 'For these misrepresentations and crimes, Purdue and its executives have been brought to justice.'"
Big pharma and the medical mafia created the third leading cause of death in this third world country (USA). Try telling people that and they look at you funny. http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org/newsroom/display/hospitalerrors-thirdleading-causeofdeathinus-improvementstooslow
It's fun to ask your friends and co-workers what the word "iatrogenesis" means and get a blank look. You get an even funnier look when you tell them it's the third leading cause of death.
You want to blame them for their ignorance, but given that the education system, the media, the medical industry, and the government all pretend like it doesn't exist, it's a wonder anybody knows.
Obamacare being passed and becoming more painful to avoid not coincidental to the price increases.
They get us coming and going, and up one side and down the other.
dat be right, d'demons ain' so bad hear' on d'ZH blogin's, but dey real bad some'wey else...big oil...big farma,big aapl, big tobaccy...big govy...big corpatins'...
So what, we wanted fascist-socialist governance, we get what we ordered.
Exactly, the article says what they do.
jack up the price of generics, and push the government to pay the outrageous increases via Medicare and Medicaid and force the increases on private insurers and providers.
This is the result of Government healthcare, that's who is paying the high prices to the Pharmas for Generics, which of course gets passed down to the taxpayer and insurance payer. It's another govt. scam, you can get the same Generic at market price yourself without going through the system.
Yes
Government run health insurance is one of the greatest scams in history. Why does a doctor visit cost $900? Because the Democrat overlords who run our socialist system (and have for generations) say they will only pay 5% of the cost. Now, doctors' offices can't survive on 10% of a /real/ price. Therefore, by simple algebra, you get:
Real Price = Charged Price * 0.05
Real Price * 20 = Charged Price
So a $45 doctor visit will actually cost $900 in Obamaville. Yay for progress!
Fucking self medications are worse than legal shit.
Weak poison.
So now I just drink and smoke.
That is one RX, or visit Colorado for some real medication with no side affects.
Well, other than munchies, that is.
Sounds half baked to me.
The TPP will only make it worse. Particularly for underdeveloped nations.
Competition is a sin
Where is that found? QE 49:49????
Just one more sign of the financial class looking anywhere for a return. If there is any part of the economy that has not been jacked and sodomized by financialization, they will seek it out. Nobody can settle for 5% if there is any possibility for 50%, it has gutted society in gerneral, and certainly the USSA in particular. Just like a crack addict, never enough till they look like all those after pictures, with no teeth and looks that make a cadaver attractive.
Fuck you Bernie and your socialist POS Obummer butt buddy. This is on you and you havethe gall to blame other? Fuck Off!
Delusional dick...
Liposomal vitamin C. Make your own for little money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1kD3BolXnE
30,000 mg of time release Vitamin C per day - it's a brand new world.
Had reoccurring bronchitis - tired of drugs, so tried massive doses of C - three days and bronchitis was gone for good.
Vitamin C is the silver bullet - in massive doses.
Drug companies are driving customers to alternatives - supplements.
Big Pharma,Bankstas, govies, military state, etc r like gangs
controlling the drug trade in a housing project. We are
the residents of the project caught in the crossfire. We
need our own gang.
I been saying that for years ...so where do we meet Wall St sounds about right
Sub I think they tried something like that a couple
of years ago but it was hijacked by morons
Now you guys are starting to catch up to the plan. I must admit it took me a while. Why did they pass Obomao Care with 70% of the population against it, and now they call us stupid Voters?
I watched the vid of the guy with the excel spreadsheet that tylers posted a few days back showing that no matter how you tweak the numbers the math does not work to pay down the debt. Remember how he stated no matter what they do the govt slice of the pie is always around 17% if they raise or lower taxes? Tweaking the numbers one way only kills it off economy in another. Or how a 7% emerging market growth rate would only cause interest rates to spike ruining the outcome again.
I went to debt clock. com and stared at the numbers changing (for a long time). They have a feature where you can wind the date up to 2018. There is a page of the 4 budget office estimates. Congressional budget office, the senate budjet office and two others.
The budgets all are projecting pie in the sky, lala land estimates just to get the debt to magically appear to shrink below 100% GDP by 2018. Which seems to be the goalseek of all 4 budgets.
All the numbers are a fraud but the one that stands out the most is the projected size of GDP at 22trillion in 2018 which would require some off the chart growth in just 4 years. Then you look at their projected Medicare budget and it grows off the charts fast in 4 years too.
THIS THIS THIS is where they plan to grow GDP without jobs.......You doctor/medical/pharma/Insurance bills are fixing to go off the charts (worse than the insane pricing now) and rob America of what little they have left from you while they feign ignorance. Its all they have left with the jobs offshore. Its their last Hail Mary pass and the people be damned.
It will end in tears, I guess the poor man that cant afford astronomic Ins dies in the streets or .govt pays ........killing it again with debt. NOt going to work,
Start thinking about voting with your feet. Medical tourism (Thailand, Brazil, India, etc.). Some of these countries have perfectly fine medical care for 75% cheaper than in the USA.
We are considering having minor stuff done in Peru.
Hopefully not in Iquitos. ;)
I been trying to convince my old man to get out of this country for good with my family but at this rate it looks like im going to have to take a go at it alone.
Yikes!
Very good article and WTF on doxycyline! In addition we also pay for a lot of the analytic work that is done at the pharmacy benefit fulfillment mailing centers and at the drug store. I totally freaked some folks out recently with this as well. There are two software companies that are connected to the pharmacy benefit managers, Milleman and Optum (a division of United Healthcare). Now let me explain something here, these two companies have been buying prescription data for years. We also had a big IPO this year for a huge medical data seller, IMS. who has records on 85% of all prescriptions world wide.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/need-any-more-proof-that-data-selling.html
Unlike many IPOs, these folks make money, big money. Prior to the IPO they bought a couple other data sellers and after the IPO they bought Cegedim Information systems. Folks in France were very upset over that one.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/ims-health-buys-cegedim-information.html
Bloomberg just had an article on them on how Yahoo uses the IMS formulation to scan what you are doing and sends customized ads for you to see. IMS creates a permanent number to tag things to you so it's not as de-identified as they tell you.
Moving on here, big expenses from CVS announced with 3 new data centers to kick in their data selling business. When you hear e-commerce today, think of data selling as that's what's going on here, selling consumer data they either have in house or buy to make a buck. CVS and Walgreens make over a billion a year and it might be up to 2 billion a year, selling our data. Of course they have to mark it up to cover all of the data expenses.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/11/cvs-to-open-new-e-commerce-technology.html
Let's not forget that United Healthcare sells drugs too under their "Prescriptive Solutions" a subsdiairy that they recently changed to the Optum name..hmmm..see any conflict of interest here and maybe no big reason to negotitate prices? Why would they as that would cut down what they make, so no reason to take pharma to the table here as they can mark it up higher. augh..
In addition the pharmacy benefit managers pay for the scoring of the FICO medication adherance scoring which I have written about many times and it's bunk. They are marketing this to become just like your credit score, so someone can pay to get a copy of your FICO medication scoring let's say before hring you? Keep that thought. FICO brags that all they need is your name and address and with whatever proprietary data they use and the formulas, they can give drug companies or insurers a "score". They sell this to pharma...
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/fico-medication-adherence-scoring.html
So to cover some of this expense, just up the cost of the drug. There's both buying and selling in the data business and pharma is pretty much a "buyer" so you can see from what I put out above, they are the consuming end, so pump up the costs of the drugs so they can buy this information and supply it to their marketing and sales folks to go after business.
I want to say the number is around 60% but don't quote me, but that's the amount of generic drugs that are manufactured in India that we consume, so now get really mad with who's making money. As a matter of fact, it's downright scary on how dependent the US is on Indian manufactured drugs!
Now again this whole "medication adherence" scoring comes back around too...let's don't waste money on someone that was scored to have a low medication adherence score, right. You know it's going that way of course. The scoring may be totally flawed and bogus but stupid CMS and HHS are starting to look at that stuff too.
Here's something else to give some thought to, what in the hell are we going to pay for drugs when the private folks get in the picture too? This is new and they have not been in the pharma business before but read the like below and see what Glaxo and Sanofi are putting up for bid. These are drugs that have come off patent and are not big money makers any more so they would like to pitch them..you'll recognize a few of them, i.e. Imitrex for one. So it's not only generic drugs, but what in the heck will private equity firms do as well? So far it's at the bidding stage.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/private-equity-firms-exploring-options.html
This is out of control all over the place.
I believe that a lot of the precursor chemicals for most drugs come from China now.
Scary!
And the real core of the issue is that even most generic drugs, much less the patented poisons these companies produce, are nowhere near as effective as natural medicines like Cannabis and Coca that people can (or could if the governments of the world were not owned by Pig Pharma) grow themselves or can (or could) have grown for them as members of a cooperative.
Agitating against the price increases of generics is just playing Pig Pharma's game. Virtually everything they produce is useless and even dangerous compared with (1) prevention through healthy choices in lifestyle and (2) natural medicines that Mother Nature has given us freely.
If the notion that Coca is a natural medicine does not compute please browse http://panaceachronicles.com for a few ideas
I don't know where this information on doxycycline comes from. Walmart still showing it as a 4 dollar prescription....about 60 bucks at Canada's Northwest Pharmacy. My g/f found a tub of it- a bird anti biotic for 26 bucks.
I smell zee bullsheet.
Cummings and Sanders are extreme leftists/democrats. They see no reason not to lie about issues in order to get votes from their moron voters.
From personal experience, the info on "Doxy" was completely accurate as of 6 months ago.
Things may have changed, but for 2+years, the price had soared per the article.
I buy my meds from overseas using pharmacychecker and have for years. The price sent often from Germany or India is less than the co-pay I would have to pay if purhased through my fairly decent insurance. All are blister packed, all are from world class manufacturers such as Cipla and MacLeods. It's a bit strange to see well packaged blister packs compared to non-hermetically sealed, count-em-out and pour them in bottles which is still done at CVS and Brooks pharmacy.
I'm not sure I believe this article anyway, the list of meds are very odd. For example albuterol while common and cheap in inhaled form is sold as pills but reading through the OGD Manual, which I use for case management of patients on workers' comp, I noticed that the pill form was in red, meaning according to OGD it was not recommended based upon efficacy. I cannot help but wonder if these are rarely used meds.
The real tragedy is to see Benicar sold for $170/month in the US, when I can buy it for $24/month. The same goes for rosuvastatin. Viagra; Cialis or Levitra sells in the US for ~$12 per tablet, purchased overseas via a reputable Canadian pharmacy the cost is $0.80 to $2/tablet.
As far as the efficacy of any, I have never seen any difference. I take my own blood pressure. I have a Cholestek available so I know that the Rosuvastatin works the same as the branded one, and well, with the ED meds, let's just say, "it's not hard to tell" if it works or not.
Pharma is out to screw everyone but this is not true worldwide, just in America. America's pharm industry is still very much in the dark ages.
"Pharma is out to screw everyone but this is not true worldwide..."
I am sorry to say but Big Pharma IS out to fuck the whole world - example quoted from this wiki reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmac
"Opponents of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership say US corporations are hoping to weaken Pharmac's ability to get inexpensive, generic medicines by forcing New Zealand to pay for brand name drugs.
Damn Viagra is highway robbery here in the US. It's often around $30 per pill! I've heard about it being available at Canadian pharmacies, but I wouldn't even know where to begin when it comes to dealing with one, and I don't want to get ripped off(or killed) by counterfeits.
The stuff has been out for a VERY long time. I wonder why it isn't yet available as a generic.
Bernie Sanders is chairman of the Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging for just one more month. Big Pharma gouging anti-trust criminals have just another month to have to put up with this harassment from Congress. Probably by February the neo-lib in chief will sign the new "Big Pharma and Big Oil Profit Protection Act" guaranteeing minimum pricing.
Blah... blah... blah...
If the companies are making a killing buy their stock and have plenty of money to buy the drugs. But, they are not making a killing so something is wrong with the "analysis." Generic drugs are generic because the drug patent has expired and any company (under FDA gubmint regulation - high costs) can produce the exact same drug. Competition (real) will bring the price down and keep it down.
I call B.S. on the prices that the leftist politicians are touting. When have the leftists Cummings and Sanders not lied?
The jack up in prices coincides, as already mentioned in an off-hand way, completely with Obamacare taking effect. If it hadn't made access to all of the drugs a mandate then the prices would be stable. Like making it mandatory that the U.S. Mint provide everyone with 1 oz. of gold every month, it's just not rational.
The reason for the prices increasing is market forces, ergo: demand going up because of the drastic increase to the number of people enrolled in Medicaid causing. These people were usually the ones who went to the hospital ER instead of the doctor, and now sometimes still do, but with their new Medicaid they are getting prescriptions filled for the tiniest sniffle. Then there was the Ebola scare, which increased demand more.
The others are useful in surgeries which the aging population gets at an extremely high rate, due to broken everything. From hips, to knees, to pinkee fingers. They are frail and they don't take care of themselves, hence the need for the heart attack medicine, which can also be explained due to the lethargic and overweight lifestyle of most Americans.
The prices of the name brand drugs themselves are a completely different matter. After recouping costs of research, advertising, overhead, and various other variable & fixed costs, those prices should come down after 6-8 years. For most, if not all though, they increase with time.
"The reason for the prices increasing is market forces"
No.
There is no "market" in generic drugs, either.
Obama personally asked India to shutter its generic drug industry.
I can't afford to live on the planet anymore.
Here is an idea; Eat healthy, organic food. Maintain a Vitamin D3 level of 85 or above.
Bingo; you don't get sick.
It is called "Personal Rresponsibliity."
I can't afford organic food I'm paying so much for my prescriptions.
My sister is just like you and follows the same mantra. Just was diagnosed with colon cancer. Everyone gets sick eventually. Hopefully you'll be next and develop a little empathy.
Stock up online and buy in foreign countries when you travel. Cheap generics on sale overseas: Thailand, Philippines, Costa Rica, etc. Closer to home, not sure about Mexico these days. Fascism = merger of corporatism and government.
Drugs and the methods used to manufacture them should not be patentable. Patents and copyrights are an infringement of the free market, and manufacturing drugs is actually one of the fields where free markets could do a lot of good.
Right now we don't have a free market in drugs. Why? Because patents are used to block production of cheap, time-proven drugs.
Actually it is worse than that. The drugs referred to in the article are OFF PATENT. They are now generic, nominally anyone can produce them but due to government supported cartel control, the big drug companies still get to jack up the prices.
And the bought and paid for Congressional response is not to force a return to a free market, which would drive those prices to almost nothing. No, the answer is to arrange taxpayer subsidies for some people for some of the drugs.
There should never be taxpayer subsidies to anyone for some people at the expense of others. That is the reason why the drug prices are increasing in the first place, because Obamacare already subsidizes a large percentage of the population.
Subsidizing consumers distorts the SD curve and makes the price unaffordable to those that are unsubsidized, thus pricing them out of the market. This is the problem either entire medical system that has been going on since the advent of Medicaid and Medicare. Hospitals and unscrupulous doctors started jacking up the prices for two reasons:
(1) because the government was footing the bill
(2) because the government was notoriously underpaying, so they charged more than what it cost to make up the shortfall
Regular doctors, who follow the hipocratic oath don't do that so they are screwed.
On subsidies, would you prefer that that there be subsidies for people with nice cars to get fuel, since they have nicer cars? How about a more realistic one, a subsidy for all of the cattle farmers in Texas due to their losses over the last 6 years? That's only a couple of $Billion.
I just got a perscription of modafinil filled out today at CVS copay was $15 for 30 100mg tabs. However w/o insurance it would have been about 300-400 bucks and CVs is one of the cheapest in the US for it so Im told. I've seen prices for other pharmicies at 1200 a script for something you can get from India or internationally for $2 a pill. It's a psycotic system. i agree in part at least with the above poster in that once a drug is discovered it should'nt be patentable in the way it is now as it does nothing but restrict supply and increase costs which are eaten by people who cant go outside of the U.S. for their meds.
I vacationed in Marmaris, Turkey tis summer and pickedup inexpensive antibiotics (no prescription required) including doxyclycline cheap and it was made by many well recognized firms including GSK. USSA your getting fukkd!!!
I question the numbers.
Doxycyclene costs 5.01 hryvnya (70 cents) per tablet here in Ukraine. I'm quite sure this market is not unique, and there are many ways of getting generics in the US at a reasonable price.
What the hospitals charge people who are not free to choose their source is a different matter.
You are in the Ukraine. The US enforce cartel pricing in the Ukraine. Not yet anyway.
ZH if you wonder why doxycycline has gone up so much then look up Lyme disease. There has been a great deal of cover up regarding this disease saying a course of doxy will cure it and it not persisting beyond a short course of treatment. Patients are then told it 'is in their head' and 'here have some anti-depressants'.
Please, please ZH do some investigation into Lyme disease
Interesting. I had a Tick bite awhile back, and I was advised to immediately call for some Doxycycline. Was told that if I just take a single 200mg dosage within ten days of being bitten, that it would likely PREVENT Lyme Disease. Lyme Disease is damn bad, and it all too often goes undiagnosed. My wife has found it with many of her patients that had been sick for a very long time, seeing numerous specialists and multiple doctors, and as you said, sometimes the patients are even suggested to have mental problems. The classic: "It's all in your head" line.
The worst part of it is that it's very treatable if caught early on, but the opportunity is lost, because it's so often missed. (a simple test is all it takes but it's rarely ordered)
I've had Lyme Disease. Doxycycline, after having Lyme Disease for three weeks, took care of it. That was ten years ago. No problems ever since. If treated early (within about 45 days) with antibiotics I lean toward the "it's all in people's heads" side.
I'm totally sick of the criminals in the US. They must be done away with.
It was while ago that I read the "Atlas".
Was it something like Hank telling Dagny: "....and, you know, I'll charge you a lot ! (for the "metal")".
She replies: "Yes, I know and I am looking forward to it"
On the shitscale they are two dingleberries short of Citigrope
Sites like naturalnews.com and mercola.com provide herbal and supplement information so you don't have to resort to expensive, ineffective and dangerous pharmaceutical synthetic drugs.
Be aware that drugs are a foreign substance to the body and you place a burdon on your liver to eventually eliminate it.
When westerm monopolistic governments currency gets devalued because of their counterfeiting, Monopoly Quack Medicine will no longer have the government protected monopoly it enjoys now and the public will by necessity learn the value of cheap, effective and safe nutritional supplements and herbal remedies.
My dad is taking Targretin, which isn't a generic, and they increased the cost per month from $20k to $30k from September to October 2014. They are robbing insurance blind already, now this from a drug created in 1999 with all R&D recouped.
Just buy antibiotics for aquariums. Pretty sure it's the same crap.