Drug Price increases...Insanity and Inhumane

I was talking to a dude at work and he was telling me his Insulin Increased to over $400 a month. He was hot, so I decided to take a peek and Jesus, it's not just insulin....it's everything.

Insulin...$187 per vial.
Thing is, price increases were identical across the board...hmmm, collusion, price fixing?
www.cbsnews.com...

The inventors sold the patent for $1...because they wanted it to benefit all of humanity. Yet prices have skyrocketed for something invented in the 30's.

www.vox.com...


It's not just Insulin....

Achtar, a drug used to combat seizures has gone up 97,000%. Let that sink in. 97000% increase.

edition.cnn.com...



Cancer drugs....shoot up to $1,000 per month....
www.washingtonpost.com... price-hike/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bc519e3f4bb8


The thing is, these are not new drugs. Big Pharma claims that it is the cost of research, but many doctors call foul on this. Bigger companies have swallowed up smaller competitors and deleted their cheaper drugs off the market which has created near enough monopolies.

Not only that, but Big Pharma is heavily subsidized.....to the tunes of billions.

www.vox.com...

I am a fiscal Conservative, but Jesus would be pissed off at this. So am I, but what can ya do.

Sorry for the (Trump) in the title...some shameful PR to drive traffic to an important topic.

originally posted by: lakenheath24

Sorry for the (Trump) in the title...some shameful PR to drive traffic to an important topic.

Miserable, if not outright against the rules.

Important topic, but no star or flag for you because of this tactic.

originally posted by: lakenheath24

Sorry for the (Trump) in the title...some shameful PR to drive traffic to an important topic.

It is shameful, and you ought to be ashamed. You get angry at companies and their deceptive advertising, right? How is this any different?

a reply to: lakenheath24

Here is an extreme interpretation of this fact.

Regular people have been used now for decades to be guinea pig experiments for all this drug testing. During this period the prices were low enough so that the guinea pigs could pay for their part in the experiment.

Now though the experiment is over for many of these drugs and now the real recipients of all this testing are those few who can pay for it, the rich. The rest of us are superfluous and can be left to die.

Now I know that is dramatic but so are these price increases

A few years back the price for EpiPens shot up 500%. This is a drug that has been on the market for decades and is used by millions. The only thing that had changed? A new brand of similar drug came on the market. Because it was new it was going to cost more than EpiPen.

I guess the manufacturer of EpiPen thought, "Now that we have competition we can raise our price to just under them and still keep most of our business while making more money."

Thankfully we finally have a generic form of EpiPen coming out soon that will hopefully be affordable.

a reply to: lordcomac

I will amend, but truly don't care about those. Importnt topic, and this site thrives on the T word.

a reply to: schuyler

Because I fixed my mistake....and they haven't. Are you seriously comparing the two? Shame on you then. Add some substance.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

I can see the food manufacturers and drug companies in collusion. Hey General Mills, lets get em all hooked on sugar, and we will hit em with a fix.
It's an unfounded conspiracy of course, but this IS a conspiracy site no?

Doubling down on a corrupt system while they can.

2 major issues

1. government subsidizing cost = driving cost up
2. insurance is essentially a scheme that keeps prices high, if we abolished all insurance prices would have to be relevant to what people could actually afford

this is part of my theory that the price of goods and services has been decoupled from the actual work put into creating them, it's a major problem

originally posted by: lakenheath24
I was talking to a dude at work and he was telling me his Insulin Increased to over $400 a month. He was hot, so I decided to take a peek and Jesus, it's not just insulin....it's everything.

Insulin...$187 per vial.

Couldn't you guys just buy your prescription drugs online from Canada our something?

Our even drive their, seems like it would still turn out cheaper than buying prescription drugs in the US.

Out of curiosity, I just looked up insulin at an online chemist and it says $126AU ($92US) for 5 vials.

a reply to: toysforadults


Insurance is a forced scam, much like Obamacare. Therefore they can do whatever they can legally discriminate.
Individuals should be able to buy in at the same price.

Universities get billions in grants for research, from taxpayers, who then pay out the arse for meds. Mental. The Vox article tells why.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

Those with the means probably do. Remember Rush Limbaugh?

But those on the edge already..not so much. Import controls and all. Peeps in the US are effed on this account. The problem is that the entire field is rigged. It's like big oil....

THC Oil is killing them.

The only way to make up for the lost profit is to charge more.

They will soon be a thing of the past, and they know it.

a reply to: toysforadults

2. insurance is essentially a scheme that keeps prices high, if we abolished all insurance prices would have to be relevant to what people could actually afford

This right here. When I started working in pharmacy I was shocked to find that pharmacies don't actually make money off the drugs they dispense. In most cases they make, at best, a couple bucks on a prescription. Nowhere near enough to cover costs. That's why pharmacies are either: A.) Companies like CVS that have diversified to areas outside of prescriptions; B.) Grocery stores that have diversified in to pharmacy in a hopes to drive up numbers for the rest of the store; or C.) Independent pharmacies that now focus on compounding and medical supply.

Instead all the profits go to the insurance companies who colluded with the drug manufacturers to set prices that will maximize the profit for both of them.

a reply to: lakenheath24
I thought you lived in the UK mate?
Diabetics get free drugs here don't they?
I haven't searched, but that is how I thought the NHS rolled here.
Please correct me if I'm wrong though, I'll be in the front line protesting any situation that isn't 'free' at the point of need as I assumed it is.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Seriously, where is the regulatory commission on this? Oh, it's probably the same folks who looked after Freddie and Fannie.


Do human beings not have ethics anymore? Companies in the US are beings after all according to SCOTUS. We are supposed to be ABOVE animals. Maybe not so much.

And people wonder why we want to protect our NHS from back door privatisation here in the UK.

Anyway, just had a quick look at prices in the UK if someone had to buy their insulin pens etc.

The pens are about £15 each and the same for a pack of 100 Micro-Fine needles.
Its about £17 for a pack of Omnitest 3 test strips, £14 for a pack of Omnican lances and the Omnitest 3 tester is about £45.

Not cheap.

a reply to: Freeborn
It's free on prescription from an NHS doctor though ain't it?
Or no?
EDIT
I'm on a drug which would be over £100 per month if I paid private, but it costs me £8.80 on the NHS.
I've paid hundreds of thousands of pounds in taxes over the years so I don't feel like anyone is doing me a favour, just a fair exchange.
...socialist though, scumbag leech taking advantage of a prescription which still allows me to work and pay taxes lol

a reply to: lakenheath24

I wonder--is the patent on these drugs about to expire, and so they are milking the exclusivity of the drug production for all it's worth? Of course, that would be immoral if that's the case. I don't have time to do the research right now, otherwise I would provide the answer instead of asking the question.