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> Bottom line, public money must come with strings attached that serve the public interest. Pharmaceutical companies should be under heightened scrutiny and reg

> Bottom line, public money must come with strings attached that serve the public interest. Pharmaceutical companies should be under heightened scrutiny and regulation because of where they get their IP. Drugs go off patent, and generics don’t have to undergo clinical trials. Sounds like the public benefits quite a bit. After a relatively short period of time (usually 10 years post FDA approval) a generic comes in the market for a fraction of the price. The problem is, once a drug gets approved everyone thinks they are entitled to it. It is fundamentally a selfish problem; “I deserve XYZ” as opposed to “everyone will benefit after it’s paid for”.

beloch 3y ago
1. Drug companies do a complex song and dance to avoid/delay the release of equivalent generics. For many drugs, they continually release modified preparations that keep generic competitors locked out decades past when they should have been available. 2. Drug prices in Canada or other nations versus the U.S. should be paid attention to. I'm Canadian, and there's absolutely no way I'd go to a pharmacy when cross border shopping. Americans are being gouged to a massive degree, in large part because of the idiotic American medical insurance system. Drug prices in the U.S. are a complex issue and it's not solely the fault of drug companies, but they are taking every advantage of the situation.
- HDThoreaun 3y ago
  You can still make generics based on the original recipe. The only reason "modified preparations" would work are if they are legitimately more effective or if the public/doctors dont know about the generic options.
- NavinF 3y ago
  1. There's nothing a drug company can do to avoid/delay the release of equivalent generics. Releasing modified preparations does not lock out competitors from copying the original preparation 2. You have no idea how drug prices work. You don't have health insurance so you should be using prices from goodrx, not the list prices at the pharmacy. Americans either have health insurance or use the cash discount. Simplifying this would be great, but drug companies are not making the massive profits that breathless journalists claim
  - beloch 3y ago
    1. They can trickle out improvements one at a time, ensuring that there is always demand for a non-generic. 2. Perhaps you should look into how other countries regulate drug prices[1]. This is related to why residents of Florida recently pushed the FDA to allow them to buy drugs from Canada. There is a massive price difference, yet pharmaceutical companies somehow manage to make money off the Canadian market. I'd like to think the U.S. is subsidizing development costs for the rest of the world, as some big pharma executives have claimed in the past, but it's now evident that research would be easy to sustain at a lower price point. [1]https://www.canada.ca/en/patented-medicine-prices-review/services/regulatory-process.html https://www.canada.ca/en/patented-medicine-prices-review/ser...
    - NavinF 3y ago
      1. Which drugs have trickled out improvements? 2 That's about new drugs, not generics. Generics are dirt cheap in America. Again, look at goodrx prices not the fake retail prices

beloch 3y ago

1. Drug companies do a complex song and dance to avoid/delay the release of equivalent generics. For many drugs, they continually release modified preparations that keep generic competitors locked out decades past when they should have been available. 2. Drug prices in Canada or other nations versus the U.S. should be paid attention to. I'm Canadian, and there's absolutely no way I'd go to a pharmacy when cross border shopping. Americans are being gouged to a massive degree, in large part because of the idiotic American medical insurance system. Drug prices in the U.S. are a complex issue and it's not solely the fault of drug companies, but they are taking every advantage of the situation.

HDThoreaun 3y ago
You can still make generics based on the original recipe. The only reason "modified preparations" would work are if they are legitimately more effective or if the public/doctors dont know about the generic options.
NavinF 3y ago
1. There's nothing a drug company can do to avoid/delay the release of equivalent generics. Releasing modified preparations does not lock out competitors from copying the original preparation 2. You have no idea how drug prices work. You don't have health insurance so you should be using prices from goodrx, not the list prices at the pharmacy. Americans either have health insurance or use the cash discount. Simplifying this would be great, but drug companies are not making the massive profits that breathless journalists claim
- beloch 3y ago
  1. They can trickle out improvements one at a time, ensuring that there is always demand for a non-generic. 2. Perhaps you should look into how other countries regulate drug prices[1]. This is related to why residents of Florida recently pushed the FDA to allow them to buy drugs from Canada. There is a massive price difference, yet pharmaceutical companies somehow manage to make money off the Canadian market. I'd like to think the U.S. is subsidizing development costs for the rest of the world, as some big pharma executives have claimed in the past, but it's now evident that research would be easy to sustain at a lower price point. [1]https://www.canada.ca/en/patented-medicine-prices-review/services/regulatory-process.html https://www.canada.ca/en/patented-medicine-prices-review/ser...
  - NavinF 3y ago
    1. Which drugs have trickled out improvements? 2 That's about new drugs, not generics. Generics are dirt cheap in America. Again, look at goodrx prices not the fake retail prices