We May Not Negotiate Prices for Ten Drugs After All

[unblock]

4. In my experience, "competition" from generics can be a cruel joke.

I got imitrex for migraines when it was the only drug of its kind available. When a generic equivalent was soon to come out, they started hiking prices, supposedly to cash out before the clock ran out on their monopoly.

Then when generic sumatriptan finally came out, both it and imitrex were *even higher* than the peak where imitrex ended up right before the generic came out.

Since then, brand competitors have come out, such as zomig. All still the same price or higher.


It's a pretty stupid idea to apply market forces to health care in the first place, never mind how thoroughly corrupted the "market" in healthcare is. Monopolies, trusts, and big decisions made by employers and insurance companies lead to a serious distortion of true market forces.