Fuck Drug Reimportation

[jmowreader]

The thread about Harold Ford possibly challenging Kirsten Gillibrand in New York contains a comment that Sen. Gillibrand could have been a big player in drug reimportation. Why bother? If American-made drugs are cheaper if we haul them to Canada and back than they are if we haul them from the manufacturer directly to the drugstore, we need to figure out Why this is so and How we can end that.

[shraby]

1. I wondered that myself.

[roguevalley]

28. we pump gas here on the Kenai and they take it to Anchorage and

bring it back to us. they charge more. that is always the answer. No logic, just more dough.

[endless october]

2. agree.

[sandnsea]

3. Every other country regulates or negotiates

All reimportation would do is cause a shortage in Canada, and frankly I have looked at Canadian drug prices and can't afford them at all. Insurance has to have good prescription coverage and we need to have our own prescription regulations.

[HughMoran]

4. Yep.

I made that argument when it was pulled from the Healthcare Bill.

What the heck is wrong with just doing the right thing to begin with? Also, if we did reimport on a massive scale, the companies would very quickly learn to game the system (limit supplies, create reverse volume pricing above a certain volumes.)

[OHdem10]

5. We pay for all the costs to the Drug Companies and therefore

other countries do not.

[SharonAnn]

9. No, we pay for advertizing, profits and bonuses. Taxpayers pay for a lot of the research costs.

There is a reason why pharmaceuticals are among the highest profit margin businesses.

We are paying for far more than the cost of the research, manufacturing, and distribution of the drugs. Far, far more.

[notesdev]

19. What irks me

is that they are allowed to advertise at all. These are prescription drugs they're hawking, stuff you need a doctor to sign for. They shouldn't be trying to get people to go to their doctors with requests for specific drugs - if people need the drugs they'll find them.

[eShirl]

21. when were they allowed to start advertising, anyway?

there were never adds when I was growing up, except for OTC's like aspirin and Pepto Bismal

[jmowreader]

24. Direct-to-consumer advertising on TV really started in 1996

Apparently it was always legal but no one did it before 1996 because the law required the manufacturers to explain the side effects but didn't say HOW to explain them. In 1996 the FDA issued draft guidance on side-effects explanation, and it was made into law into 1997.

http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crsdocuments/RL3285303252005.pdf

I also found out the only other country in the world that allows "direct to consumer" ads is New Zealand. Unfortunately, New Zealand doesn't seem to allow drugstores to sell prescription medications online, and there's no real way to compare NZ's prescription costs to US ones because New Zealand has heavily subsidised healthcare.

[Double T]

6. Reason for Canada having lower drug prices is because the Canadian Government.........

has enough brass balls to LIMIT what big pharma can charge the consumer for their drugs. Our congressional representatives are too busy taking bribes from big pharma lobbyists.

http://www.aarpinternational.org/resourcelibrary/resourcelibrary_show.htm?doc_id=547057

[dreamnightwind]

11. bingo

Which is exactly why they (pharma and their bought reps) woudn't allow a strong public option, or even a strong national health exchange, to exist that could bargain effectively on drug prices.

[Double T]

12. The proposed health care reform is NOTHING but eyewash.

Please pass the overpriced boric acid.

[cabluedem]

17. lots of "Canadian" meds come from India, Isreal and other countries. nt

[Enthusiast]

22. Exactly like in the U.S.

This is just another industry talking point designed to prevent serious re-importation consideration. About 40% of the raw materials going into U.S. drugs come from China.

[Double T]

30. OK. The Canadian Government still caps profit margins and/or fixes prices on the drugs.

Many of the grossly overpriced drugs in the USA come from other countries. Instead of a government that guards against price gouging, ours assists in the price gouging.

[Enthusiast]

20. The Canadian government works

on behalf of the consumer. The U.S. government works on behalf of the corporation. It is as simple as that.

As far as I'm concerned we can put price controls on all medications starting immediately.

I don't know about your TV but about the single most frequent advertisement on mine is for pharmaceuticals. If they were interested in helping the American consumer this would not be the case.

[JCMach1]

32. Like most of the rest of the world- prices here are 10-25% of what they are in the US

From the SAME freakin' companies. It's the same stuff folks. Don't let those idiots convince you otherwise.

Price controls work!

For free market you have to have choice. For many meds, because of patents, there is no competition and NO choice. Without price controls on medicine across the board, the insanity will continue.

[Raster]

27. Case in point: the bush* Medicare Bill, which contained specific language FORBIDDING the US

...from negotiating with drug companies for better prices. Again: the Medicare Bill contained specific language forbidding the US government from negotiating with drug companies for better prices.

[Double T]

31. The ultimate in your face screwing courtesy of bushco and the rethugs.

Long live the corporation, screw the consumer to death cause there are plenty more where they came from.

[Enthusiast]

33. Hell, Raster, that's why

the Bush Administration enacted the damned bill to start with. It was specifically to take care of their pharmaceutical cronies.

[Raster]

34. The pharmaceutical cronies wrote the bill!

[BzaDem]

7. Because price controls in the US are not politically possible, whereas importation is?

The reimportation vote had a majority of the Senate in favor. That wasn't enough (you need 60), but it was very, very close. It might even happen in this Congress should the healthcare bill be passed first.

On the other hand, direct price controls might have 20 Senate votes, and I think that is an overestimate.

[aquart]

8. I wondered about that.

[laughingliberal]

10. It's because we failed to fix the horrible provision in Medicare part D

that made it illegal for Medicare to use its purchasing power to negotiate lower prices on behalf of its beneficiaries. Of all the things that coulda/shoulda been fixed in this HCR debate that was the one I would most have bet would have been done. Absolutely shocking to have had that possibility killed before the debate even began.

[dreamnightwind]

15. Obama himself talked about this

I remember hearing him say how fixing part D was going to be a large component of how he paid for HCR. So, this is not happening? Interesting. He didn't appear to be posturing at the time, in fact it seemed like he almost hated to reveal that was where much of the money would come from. Makes me wonder.

On most HCR issues I give Obama little or no credit for trying to do anything that actually benefits people instead of corporations. On this issue I'm not so sure, seems like he had his mind changed by other circumstances, whatever those might have been.

[Enthusiast]

23. It's shocking until

you realize "we the people" are no longer in control of our government. "We the people" are now "Wee the People."

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. This is about reimporting Viagra? nt

[jmowreader]

25. Well, if you want to put it that way, yes

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. So far as I can tell, reimports are cheaper than US distributed drugs

because if we didn't sell the drugs to other countries (i.e., Canada) at realistic prices they'd just turn around and make their own versions of those drugs, cutting into the drug dealers' profits.

So the acid suppressor that goes to Canada, and then back to the US for less cost than the exact same sent straight to the drugstore from the US manufacturer does not have to suffer foreign competition - they pay what it is worth, while we pay what the market will bear (and then some).

[TheKentuckian]

16. You have to admit it is better than just getting robbed

Until we can better get our shit together about actually policing our pirate companies it is better to do an end around than nothing. The savings over the status quo are significant.

[davidpdx]

18. I'm on a medication and living abroad and can tell you the price

in both the US and Korea without insurance (though I won't tell you which medication):

US: Over $300

Korea $150 (last time I checked)

From the box, I know that they come from Ireland via Taiwan.

I pay only about $45 because I have insurance.

[Yuugal]

26. "Why bother?"

I'll tell you why we should bother. Because people like me have to pay 110 for a 30 day supply of pantaprazole and it is less than 40 in Canada? If we allowed the re-importation big pharma would have to cut us a break on prices. Gillebrand (D-Pharma) is just protecting her campaign donors, her base if you will.

[murphyj87]

29. Drugs are cheaper in Canada because....

about 20 years ago, Big Pharma was lobbying the Canadian federal government to extend their patents (to keep generics off the market longer). The federal government readily extended their patents...... in exchange for price controls. As a result of this agreement, the federal government usually gets prices that are 40% to 60% of what Americans pay. Why the American government is unable to get a similar deal is a mystery to me, other than that it appears that corporations (Pharma, medical insurance companies, Wall Street etc.) own the US federal government