Drug Shortages are Leading to Price Gouging and Safety Issues

reply to post by mustard seed

Squew these guys I have a Ochem degree and am working on making all my own meds or stockpiling enough safely to last the balance of my years.

Another Chemist!

Be very careful about making your own Meds. The FDA is in a real PISSY mood and the extortion artists, excuse me The government considers fining kiddy lemonade stands a source of revenue at this point in time.

I am sure we are going to see licenses and training certification for home gardens soon....

Unfortunately I am not kidding. This article explains the I gotcha. www.examiner.com...

Eugenics conspiracies aside:

Big Pharma is in big trouble - most of their big-profit blockbusters are about to go off patent. Between now and 2015, $250 billion in drug sales are about to disappear into the generics market.

So Big Pharma is pushing for another "bail-out" by withholding essential products. A bit like a union strike or human peoples' riots for food and justice, except Big Pharma is campaigning for the corporate right to profit.

Corporations are just profit-making machines. They don't care. They can't. Despite their alleged legal personhood, they are not human. Really, they are just a legal idea. And corporate law says corporations must put profits before people, even if people die.

The 10 Biggest-Selling Drugs That Are About to Lose Their Patent

The imminent arrival of the dreaded "patent cliff" has been haunting the pharmaceutical industry for years, and it's finally here. With patents on many blockbuster drugs about to expire, an estimated $250 billion in sales are at risk between now and 2015…

Drugs going off-patent in 2011 include:
1. Lipitor - made by Pfizer - US sales worth $5,329,000,000
2. Zyprexa - made by Eli Lily - US sales worth $2,496,000,000
3. Levaquin - made by Johnson & Johnson - US sales worth $1,312,000,000
4. Concerta - made by Johnson & Johnson - US sales worth $929,000,000
5. Protonix - made by Pfizer - US sales worth $690,000,000

Drugs going off-patent in 2012 include:
6. Plavix - made by Bristol-Myers Squibb /
Sanofi-Aventis - US sales worth $6,154,000,000
7. Seroquel - made by AstraZeneca - US sales worth $3,747,000,000
8. Singulair - made by Merck - US sales worth $3,224,000,000
9. Actos - made by Takeda - US sales worth $3,351,000,000
10. Enbrel - made by Amgen - US sales worth $3,304,000,000

The Companies:

* Pfizer (PFE). Along with Lipitor and Protonix, Pfizer markets Enbrel outside the U.S., Canada and Japan with 2010 sales for Enbrel at $3.2 billion. Drugs losing patent protection between 2010 and 2012 make up 42% of Pfizer's pharmaceutical revenue.

* Eli Lilly (LLY). Zyprexa's worldwide revenues were just over $5 billion in 2010 - nearly 22% of Lilly's full year sales. Zyprexa's patent expires in October, and Lilly could fall off the patent cliff along with Pfizer.

* Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). J&J is more diversified than most Big Pharma companies but still looks to lose $1.4 billion and $1.3 billion in worldwide sales of Levaquin (levofloxacin) and Concerta (methylphenidate). That's 12% of the $22.4 billion in drug revenues and 4% of the company's total $61.6 billion in revenues.

* Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) co-developed and co-market Plavix. Bristol reported $6.7 billion in Plavix sales in 2010 - 34% of its total revenues of $19.5 billion. Sanofi reported over 2 billion euros (roughly $2.7 billion) in Plavix sales - 7% of its 30 billion euros revenues in 2010. Plavix's patent is set to expire on May 17, 2012.

In 2010, Sanofi said generic competition caused loss of more than 2 billion euros in sales.

* AstraZeneca (AZN). Seroquel's worldwide sales amounted to $5.3 billion in 2010 - nearly 16% of Astra's revenues. Originally set expire in September 2011, Seroquel was given a six-month extension from the FDA.

Drugs generating 62% of Astra's 2009 revenue go off-patent by 2014.

* Merck (MRK). Worldwide sales for Singulair were $5 billion in 2010 - nearly 11% of Merck's total revenue. Merck's blood pressure drugs Cozaar/Hyzaar already went off-patent and sales slumped by 41% in 2010 to $2.1 billion - but has already recovered lost revenue from other drugs' patent expiry or withdrawal, including Vioxx (withdrawn in 2004), Proscar (2005), Zocor (2006), Fosamax (2008) and Cozaar (2010).

* Takeda. Reported sales were 293 billion yen ($3.58 billion), or 27% of its total revenue for Actos in the 1st 9 months of 2010. Actos patent expired in January 2011, but Takeda negotiated a reprieve til August 2012.

* Amgen (AMGN). Enbrel accounted for 23% of Amgen's total revenue in 2010 - with total sales at $3.5 billion.


ALSO SEE:

Drug prices to plummet as expiring patents allow generic competition

Big Pharma's Patent Headache

Drugmakers Hike Prices of Meds Facing Generic Competition

I was going to start a thread but did a search and by golly. . . .

Was listening to the radio and heard them talking about drug shortages.

I calmly put a tinfoil hat on and came up with this.

It's Obamas' fault.

If there is a shortage (created by government influence)

then government can come in to save the day.

People would welcome the "government" intervention (not realising that they initially caused the shortage) and lo and behold!

Government Healthcare is welcomed by all.

Anyway, just my thoughts on the subject.

So its not just in our country(Belgium). We have been getting also reports lately about certain drugs not being available. The funny part is the excuse they gave us was because other county's our buying up our supply at a higher price.( well more like the big pharma can sell it elsewhere higher).

Ah the smell of total collapse.

Remember remember.

I'd like to link threads, this one, where a NYT article shows collusion between Obama and drug companies.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Been good to search this thread ah!
Many were victims with the above medicine were suffering from too much pain. I've searching about actos which has been a prescribed medication for type 2 diabetes that has associated long-list side effects but later on it has linked to bladder cancer and heart disease which many got affected and complaining. Another thing is the J&J which is the manufacturer of defective hip devices that has many patients got complications. Furthermore, this thread has much information.
Cheer up!