Is it a ripoff?
Hubby repaired/replaced computers for the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. (British company, but they swallowed up three US companies, so he worked in the R & D buildings for the US east coast division.) Rarely did anyone get into the R & D wing, but with a lot of clearance, he got in to do his work. Many long hallways, and each one had many doors with large rooms. In each room were many PhD/cream-of-the-crop scientists working on cures for all sorts of illnesses. He calculated each group received millions per year to develop that particular cure, and tons and tons of those groups.
Out of all that work, most of the time it doesn't work. Millions and millions to find out "this doesn't work." (When Mom was told the cancer she had would kill her, she took part in a drug trial. Her rationale was, "it might work. And, if it doesn't, that stops all others from having the false hope it might work." It didn't work, and it was already at clinical trial stage.)
And then something works! It works!
Who should pay the money for that working? The government? First, which one? Second, where are they getting that money? Because the US budget doesn't cover the cost of R & D just that one company.
And by the time it is found out it does work, there is copyright protection to pay for, and try to recoup money spent on so much that doesn't work. And, ultimately they want to be paid for all that work.
So, like a copyright for a new book, it's then sold on the market. First comes the hardback book first edition, which is worth more than the paperback version or the digital version. And, like a book, no one knows exactly how well it will sell. Even if something works for you, how much are you willing to pay for it? Same deal. It seems everyone wants the free version.
And once it's discovered that even given to everyone (versus trials of a mere 200 people, give or take), it starts showing whether there are previously undiscovered side effects, and are people willing to have those side effects? Often it's pulled at that point, and there goes the class-action lawsuits. (Pharma has to pay them too.)
Finally, it gets down to generic form. (And most have been pulled long before this point.) In the publishing business, that would be kin to paperback form. Will it sell in the country and out of the country? Well, if it sells out of the country, than that country's government needs to check it for safety standards, which, of course, cost the pharma even more money.
Everyone complains the US is the cuprit. Really? Check it out. How much does a brand new drug cost right out of the manufacturer's plant of the pharmaceutical company in your country? How much do Canadian drugs cost when they're brand new? And who should pay the big bucks for them -- Canadians or Americans? (I vote for Vatican City, but we don't really get to vote on that one. lol)
You know the big news about that epi pen that cost $700 last year? Guess what. Not the whole story. Ends up $700 was for TWO pens, not one. AND, the manufacturer sold it to the drug store for $130 a piece. The drug store charged more of course, (they're in business to make money too), but no one was paying $700. That was the listed price -- top dollar price.
You really have to stop counting on news stories. And you really have to stop counting personal-stories as news.
A pill that works for RA? Priceless! The way you keep getting one after another after another? Hundreds of thousands of Americans tried it before it got into your hand. They paid big bucks to be the guinea pig for you. And, as it turns out, it still only works for a little while.
It's that hard to find a cure! Where else are they getting the money to pay for it?
