$1,000-a-pill Hepatitis drug in USA sells for less than $10 in Egypt

The financial raping of America by Big Pharma has just achieved a new milestone with the impending launch of a Hepatitis C drug that costs $1,000 a pill. If you've ever wondered why U.S. health care is so unaffordable and inaccessible -- and why health insurance costs are bankrupting businesses and municipalities across the nation -- this is exactly why. The same drug that sells for $1,000 a pill in the USA -- named "Sovaldi" -- sells for just $10 in Egypt, or 1/100th the USA price.

The prices we pay for drugs in the United States are ridiculous. This is a major reason our health care lags so far behind. Other industries also engage in price gouging the US (such as the music and entertainment industries), but no where are the margins so completely out of line with the actual cost to produce a product.

Elected officials are so connected with Big Pharma and often sit on the boards of major pharmaceutical companies after they retire from public office. We the People end up footing the bill for corporate greed and excessive profits. The margins on the products would be comical if they weren't causing countless consumers to go into debt or bankruptcy because the fees just to survive are so astronomical.

Personally, I am tired of being taken advantage of by corporate interests and our Government.

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Sometimes capitalism is not so great, other times it is...

Yes that about says it all.This country does need a major health care overhaul and obamacare isn't it.
It seems lower and middle classes are financial hostages of big Pharma.Yet another insult and national disgrace.

reply to post by Metallicus


I was just talking to an individual in Canada who is now cured of Hepatitis C by this drug... and he got it for free from his government/society... but in the U.S. a course of this drug would be in excess of $80,000.

It is criminal. The idiots who fear "death panels" cannot seem to understand that the for-profit medical industry is just that, except that the criteria for life and death is a bank account, not a bureaucracy.

Hopefully, some saint will travel to Egypt and return to the "civilized" U.S. with a pocket full of life-saving pills... disgusting that we live like this... or die like this.

Big pharma sucks! Jesus H. Christ is EVERYTHING a scam in this country???

HUMBLEONE
Big pharma sucks! Jesus H. Christ is EVERYTHING a scam in this country???

My cable costs more than my friends per month because of my neighborhood. I pay 3x what my Russian friend pays for the same CD. I feel used and I am sick of this BS.

It's spreading the health to spread the wealth, don'tcha know.

I'm sure hoping we get some change...someday, eh?

How long in the USA until a generic can be made..? 20 or 25 years?

As an outsider the US health care system looks on par with a 3rd world country, sure you have some of the best doctors in the world but only the rich can afford them.

I read an artical some where that they charge you $25 for a single aspirin in US hospitals, here in Europe and pretty much every other 1st world country health care is subsidised from tax money so you don't pay a penny when you need it.

Is it wrong to hope that the people who set the cost of healthcare and medicine develop an awful condition that there is no cure for? Oh wait they already have it..............GREED

Funny how ridiculously inflated drug costs are never mentioned when problems with the healthcare industry is discussed by the do nothings in DC.The big pharma lobby has been busy in Washington to make sure that there is no discussion on the legal robbery taking place.

Do this how to fix the budget and this silliness will go away all on it's own. Many directly blame greedy corporations for these high prices but fail to realize they only do so in collusion with the government.

reply to post by NeoSpace

I read an artical some where that they charge you $25 for a single aspirin in US hospitals,

That must be one of the better hospitals that are trying be as honest as possible with getting the board of directors on their ass for not making enough of a profit!!!

I have seen numbers that would compare the price of an aspirin to how the Pentagon used to spend hundreds of dollars on a 12 dollar hammer!

Anyhow, I would really love to know if this "DRUG" company got any tax subsidies from the US government to come up with this pill!

If the government subsidizes a company for research, then why wouldn't the tax payers of "that" country get the pill the cheapest???

But then again I could ask a different question. If Defense Contractors and Banks make a huge profit off of wars, then why should it be up to the tax payers of that country to pay for the care of the soldiers whom were injured instead of the companies whom made billions?

F'd up world we are living in........

reply to post by Metallicus


Because to a lot of Americans, socialized healthcare = Marxist dictatorship.

reply to post by NeoSpace


The $25 aspirins are true enough. I had to settle my fathers last week and a half in ICU and saw the line items. All the stupid stories?..aren't stupid. They're true for the little things that cost a bank.

The US doesn't have a system. We're caught in the middle like Frogger on a freeway. The law says Thou Shalt Provide Medical Treatment to ANYONE...and anyone takes it. Lots of it. 100's of millions per year of it. Show up at a US Emergency room and know how to present your problem. That's where free care exists and the law simply doesn't make it optional in any 'at that moment' way. It's also an insanely expensive way to supply much of what is given that way.

On the other hand, the same hospitals having to give it away on the 1st floor, are shamelessly for-profit on floors 2 and up...and someone is going to make up the balance sheets for the bean counters on that law about providing care. The $25 Aspirin is no better than the $.05 Aspirin in a bulk bottle from a warehouse store, either.

Well you can probably thank the Republican party for dropping any EPA regs and letting that pharmaceutical company dump any failed tests into our drinking water

And while I have no evidence to back this part up, Republicans like charging 1000 a pill to increase profits.

Elton
Sometimes capitalism is not so great, other times it is...

If you had capitalism then you would have competition in the market place and the price would never reach such absurd levels.

What you have is Corpitalism which controls the market and the consumers via legal lobbying efforts to ensure a lack of competition.

reply to post by tinner07

And while I have no evidence to back this part up, Republicans like charging 1000 a pill to increase profits.

While you have no evidence?

I think there are plenty of folk whom HAVE EVIDENCE that the current system promoted by Democrats is raising prices as well!

Try harder the next time if you want to push the blame on one party when they are BOTH to blame!

reply to post by interupt42


Exactly!

tinner07
Well you can probably thank the Republican party for dropping any EPA regs and letting that pharmaceutical company dump any failed tests into our drinking water

And while I have no evidence to back this part up, Republicans like charging 1000 a pill to increase profits.

What? LOL. "No evidence" means just made it up.


Here's the real deal on drug expenses. All this hysterical "evil corporations" trying to rape us for profits aside there are real and concrete issues that need to be addressed.

First of all, it's a bit silly to compare the price of a med that is a third world knockoff with one made in the US. They have no QA control, litigation to worry about, no regulations, no EPA, no OSHA. You might not even be getting anything near the real drug.

Secondly, with a very bureaucratic and bloated bureaucracy known as the FDA, it takes decades and hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to bring a drug to market, if it is approved at all. That huge expense is passed to customers. The reason why foreign markets can being them about cheaper and earlier is because they don't have to cover the costs to bring it to market.

We, the people of the US created this problem by demanding that the government regulate everything to death and demand that all drugs be as close to 100% safe as possible and if something bad happens, then we want to be able to sue for millions. See all of those lawsuit commercials on daytime TV where lawyers are actively advertising to sue over medications? That too is part of the expense for a medication you see here.