PDA

View Full Version : Drug costs/"safety" and the causes of our economic troubles




tangent4ronpaul
03-30-2008, 05:28 PM
Interesting propaganda piece hyping more regulation:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus30mar30,1,1812038.column


Tale a look at cause and effect here...

Cause - drugs are very expensive
Effect - some unscrupulous scumbags try and counterfeit them and pass them off as genuine.

Notice that the article author is cheerleading for more FDA regulations and citing a Worldbank study bemoaning the lack of regulations in some places. Encouraging paying higher prices TO KEEP US SAFE! (think ammo encoding and HAZMAT fees or limiting how much powder you can store in your house).

Consider that if you remove the extreme profit incentive, you also remove the incentive to counterfeit.

Lets look at some history here: prior to about 1962 the Pharmaceutical companies did their own quality control and and the percent of bad drugs getting out there and resulting recalls was about what it is today. There were some minor problems with smaller manufacturers that had to do with things like dust accumulation on ceiling fans and things like that, occasionally causing bad material to get into drug batches. These smaller manufacturers got purchased by larger companies and the problem went away on it's own. During the 60's some drugs designed for temperate climates were shipped to tropical climates (Vietnam) and some coatings melted resulting in drug doses being released too soon/all at once when used there. Anyway, that's what started the FDA nightmare. Back then it cost half a million and took 2 years to develop and bring a new drug to market. By todays standards, drugs were CHEAP! Anyway, the FDA stepped in and started regulating things. The drug companies liked this arrangement, as they could use it to justify higher prices so they lobbied for more and more regulation - and got it. They always cite high R&D costs and risk to justify their high prices, but for every $1 spent on R&D they spend $2 on advertising. Also, keep in mind that bureaucracies (i.e. FDA) seek to self perpetuate - more power, more staff, and a larger mission means justifying larger budgets (tax dollars).

So we get more and more regulations. Now it takes about 12 years to get approval of a drug and costs tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. R&D on drugs that cure or treat many diseases is simply not done because there is not a large enough "market" and cost/profit ratio. Instead the focus is on A) maintenance drugs that keep people dependent on them for life and B) lifestyle drugs - things to make your penis hard or promote hair growth. These are much more profitable.

Anyone remember the "missile gap" or the "bomber gap"? - well, now we have the "drug gap" - because our process takes 12 years and the UK's takes 8 years - the level of recalls is the same in both countries. But the US doesn't accept UK testing results and new drugs go to market over there years before they are available here. Americans die every year as a result, that didn't have to.

Something to keep in mind here: Americans pay the highest price for drugs of anyone in the world. Why? - Because the drug companies have a monopoly on selling to us and because of the FDA's "chain of custody". Have you heard about Americans buying from Canadian pharmacies? - The drug companies and FDA say these drugs are unsafe because the FDA isn't able to track each shipment to each destination and dictate the storage conditions and regulations to Canadian pharmacies. But Canada negotiates with the drug companies and gets MUCH better prices for American drugs - which is why Americans want to buy (American) drugs from Canada. The situation in Mexico is largely the same.

The FDA and drug companies also say Indian drugs are "unsafe" - well, drugs from India are "unsafe" because they patent the synthesis, while we patent the molecule. Safety has nothing to do with it - but don't expect them to admit that. Indian drugs are also CHEAP!

Yes, outsourcing to third world countries is creating the same problems that the FDA originally stepped in to fix with regulation - now they want to regulate the world... Remember - companies outsource to avoid regulatory, legal and insurance costs.

It's not well know, but health care in the Middle East and Africa is provided for pennies on the dollar of what we pay. And it's not bad health care! They can do this because they don't have the regulatory, legal and insurance burden we do. Wanna know what the abscess on our countries ass is that's driving the economy down the crapper? - read the previous sentence again. Well, that and printing money - leading to inflation.

One other note - Big-Pharma is the most profitable industry in this country.

Think things are bad now? - there is something being pushed called the International CODEX. This little brainfart would ban most nutritional supplements and vitamins and the few vitamins you would be ALLOWED to buy will be Rx (by prescription) only! Oh the joys of over regulation!

Wake up and smell the one world government!

Couple of links on the CODEX:
http://www.healthfreedomrights.com/wst_page6.html
http://www.nocodexgenocide.com/nocodexgenocide.html
http://www.iahf.com/20050704.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/update071505.cfm

-n

tangent4ronpaul
03-31-2008, 07:44 AM
Ironic that this post brings up a banner ad advertising what the post is 100% AGAINST!

-n