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Originally Posted by Barry-xlovecam
I read that yesterday also ... His reasoning was that the low quantities needed and sold justified the price.
One of the drugs was a re-patented, re-formulated generic drug, whose production had first begun some 60 years ago. These problems are caused by pharmaceutical patent policy abuse allowed by the FDA.
There has to be government tax and pharmaceutical patent policy, maybe in some cases, tax credit policy to prevent abuses like these by pharmaceutical patent holders. If pharmaceutical manufacturers produce drugs with unconscionable prices -- their patents should be forfeit with the government then licensing production at a reasonable cost to patients.
There would need to be a law that would allow this to be done with some equitable due process. Right now it could not be legally done. So, we are stuck with paying or dying at the mercy of profit -- that is too high of a price to pay -- human suffering with wellness a choice of bankruptcy or death. This extortion pricing should be illegal but it usually isn't in AmeriKa.
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I don't have a problem with allowing the drug companies some protection when they invest a lot to make a drug so they can earn that money back. As it is right now that is supposed to be 10 years then after that the patent opens up and other companies can make generics.
Still, companies find a way around the system. I have asthma and was diagnosed in 1978. The first inhaler I was prescribed was called Proventil. It is still on the market today. Most albuterol inhalers are pretty much the same, but there are 4 or 5 brands out there. In the 37 years since I was first prescribed this medication there have only been generic inhalers available in the US for about 5 years because the drug companies keep finding ways to re-claim their 10 year patent. The most recent was when they were forced to changed the type of propellant they use to a more environmentally friendly kind. There is no price difference in the propellants and every item that comes in a spray can like hairspray or spray paint had to change. Still, the pharmacy companies were able to claim that this was enough of a change that they get another 10 years of protection so we went back to $50 inhalers instead of the generics were were about $10.