The Price of This Drug Went Up 100,000 Percent Since 2001 for No Good Reason

[DamianTV]

https://gizmodo.com/the-price-of-thi...-20-1825819643

Did you catch 60 Minutes last night? If you did, you may have learned about a drug called Acthar that went from $40 in 2001 to over $40,000 today. It’s a perfect illustration of just how poorly regulated the US pharmaceutical industry continues to be and how there’s absolutely no good reason for the extreme prices Americans pay for medicine.

Acthar has been on the market since 1952 and is primarily used to treat infantile spasms, a rare condition. Why does Acthar cost $40,000 today, an increase of 100,000 percent from the cost in 2001? Pure greed.

You can buy an identical drug to Acthar called Synacthen for just $33 in Canada. Synacthen is also available in Europe, where the drug is also reasonably priced. But the company that currently makes Acthar in the United States, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, bought the rights to Synacthen in America and doesn’t sell it in the US.

If you didn’t catch the episode of 60 Minutes, you need to watch it right now. Or, don’t, if you’re trying to keep your blood pressure down.



(Video at link)




What does the company have to say for itself? Mallinckrodt insists that the price hike occurred before it bought Questcor pharmaceuticals in 2014, which used to produce Acthar. Mallinckrodt owns Questcor now, but told 60 Minutes in a series of emails that it’s not doing anything. The company didn’t send a representative to appear on camera.

The story of Acthar should be familiar to anyone who followed the EpiPen saga of 2016. The price of the EpiPen, a common injectable drug product for allergies, went from $57 in 2007 to roughly $600 in 2016. Mylan, the maker of EpiPen, did absolutely nothing to improve the product while it engaged in this price gouging. Thankfully, the US Justice Department appears to be investigating Mylan and according to some reports might finally bring charges this year against the company for a host of allegations, including price fixing. The investigation into Mylan reportedly started in 2014. But we’ll see if anyone goes to jail.

As for Mallinckrodt, that company will continue to charge $40,000 for a drug that’s been out of patent for decades. And they’ve even expanded the marketing for the drug to treat things like rheumatoid arthritis. As you can see from the episode, there’s no real evidence that Acthar is effective in treating arthritis.

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Full article and 60 Minutes video (which has bias) at link.

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This is why Monopolies are bad. Whether its in banking or cars or home builders or internet service, Monopolies take advantage of the law to prohibit competition so they can do exactly what they did.

According to another film, Food, Inc. the heads of the FDA usually either have worked for Monsanto (now owned by Bayer, drug manufacturer), or leave the FDA to work for Monsanto / Bayer. How is this a system of checks and balances that work for the people? Two things: Maybe if the Govt would quit getting involved in Health Care by providing the now mandatory health insurance for City Employees, its obvious their solution is causing more problems than its correcting, and TWO: Maybe if the Govt would quit getting involved in Health Care? Yes, exact same thing, this time caused by Congress passing a bill saying Medicare / Medicaid is "prohibited" from negotiating prices with Drug Manufacturers to lower costs. Funny how they say "Lower" and the prices go up?

Libertarian Solutions:
- Get Government out of Health Care
- Get Government out of Health Care
- Repeal Mandatory Health Insurance Laws
- Get Government out of Health Care
- Repeal Laws that Prohibit Price Negotiations
- Get Government out of Health Care
- Get Government out of Health Care
- Get Government out of Health Care
- Get rid of Medicare / Medicaid
- Get Government out of Health Care
- Get Rid of the FDA
- Let the Free Market determine Prices for both Insurance and Health Care
- Get Government out of Health Care

Any other Libertarian solutions? This is obviously a Multi Tier Trap, so Libertarian solutions need to see where Govt has gotten itself involved in too many places.

There are THREE Stages to Revolution:

1. Spread of Information
2. Public Disobedience
3. Violence

Violence is to be avoided when possible, but it sometimes necessary. This is where you need to be actively involved in the first two steps, Spread Information, and Disobey the Law. I can not advocate Violence, but only remind you to be prepared for it as it WILL be used against you. Remember that the people that are willing to point the guns at your head are also victims, convince those people to turn those guns against those who are truly hurting We The People. When / If Violence is enacted against you, dont try to win by fighting back only using violence. Instead, show those people using the Violence against you a True Liberty Solution that frees them. Show them their own chains, then, you just increased the size of your Group into an Army.