For those of you who do pharma research, will we ever see a decrease in drug prices in America?

[Alakazam123]

I dunno if this is the appropriate forum. But every day I hear about how pharmaceutical companies price annual drug treatments in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, many impoverished people are unable to get access to the drugs.

Meanwhile, I've heard the usual tale, that the reason why other countries pay less for drugs, is that we subsidize the drug research for the entire world.

I personally find that hard to believe, given that most pharma companies don't even put most of their profits into R&D, but rather marketing.

How can we solve this problem in the US?

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[Candidate2017]

I dunno if this is the appropriate forum. But every day I hear about how pharmaceutical companies price annual drug treatments in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, many impoverished people are unable to get access to the drugs.

Meanwhile, I've heard the usual tale, that the reason why other countries pay less for drugs, is that we subsidize the drug research for the entire world.

I personally find that hard to believe, given that most pharma companies don't even put most of their profits into R&D, but rather marketing.

How can we solve this problem in the US?

No, so much misinformation here.

1. US meds are cheaper in other countries because their government is the only buyer of meds (in the US the buyers are private insurance, states and fed government). The foreign government can unilaterally decide their citizens don't need a $100,000/month chemo med that prolongs life for 6 months. They are free to say, "No we won't buy any of your drugs unless you give us an 80% discount across the board."

2. Big Pharma does spend a lot of marketing but they spend much more on research, most of which ends in failure.

3. The Americans hurt by full price US meds (plus mark up to cover foreign losses) are not "the impoverished" who have Medicaid or Medicare. Regular Americans with private insurance from their employer are the hardest hit because private insurance will refuse many newer expensive meds in order to stay solvent. They can't just raise taxes to pay for the meds.

4. Why can't the US fed government follow foreign governments and demand discounts from Big Pharma? Because democracy. Your Congress has enacted laws that make it illegal for the fed/Medicare to negotiate med prices (Medicare is required to pay full price). Because $ from lobbying. If you're a regular worker you get hit from both ends: you have to pay higher prices for your meds while your taxes fund full price meds for others on Medicare.

BTW you might want to read up on why Congress enacted laws requiring Medicare payees (hospitals and docs) to use/buy EMR. Hint: because $ from lobbying. Democracy, F yeah!

 

[Alakazam123]

No, so much misinformation here.

1. US meds are cheaper in other countries because their government is the only buyer of meds (in the US the buyers are private insurance, states and fed government). The foreign government can unilaterally decide their citizens don't need a $100,000/month chemo med that prolongs life for 6 months. They are free to say, "No we won't buy any of your drugs unless you give us an 80% discount across the board."

2. Big Pharma does spend a lot of marketing but they spend much more on research, most of which ends in failure.

3. The Americans hurt by full price US meds (plus mark up to cover foreign losses) are not "the impoverished" who have Medicaid or Medicare. Regular Americans with private insurance from their employer are the hardest hit because private insurance will refuse many newer expensive meds in order to stay solvent. They can't just raise taxes to pay for the meds.

4. Why can't the US fed government follow foreign governments and demand discounts from Big Pharma? Because democracy. Your Congress has enacted laws that make it illegal for the fed/Medicare to negotiate med prices (Medicare is required to pay full price). Because $ from lobbying. If you're a regular worker you get hit from both ends: you have to pay higher prices for your meds while your taxes fund full price meds for others on Medicare.

BTW you might want to read up on why Congress enacted laws requiring Medicare payees (hospitals and docs) to use/buy EMR. Hint: because $ from lobbying. Democracy, F yeah!

I agree with everything except #2. There are many charts on google, showing big pharma spending just around 20% on R&D and far more spent on Advertising.

 

[W19]

Find out how much $$$ your doctor(s) is/are receiving from big pharma...

https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/search/physicians/by-name-and-location

 

[aldol16]

I don't think we will be seeing decreases in pricing any time soon. There might be a point where prices flatten out for a bit as pharma companies hit a point where the market can no longer give them more but that point hasn't been reached yet. As a patient, you're always going to demand that your insurance pay up for whatever drug you need. If you have a rare condition that only 4000 people in the country have, pharma is going to charge a high price for a drug because otherwise they'd never regain their R&D costs from it. And if you're one of those people, you're gonna damn well make sure that your insurance company pays up because for you, it's life or death.

In countries with more socialized healthcare systems, there is a set rate for quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). The government will pay up to x amount for one quality-adjusted life year that the drug brings you. If it's lower than that, they're not going to pay. There are obviously many problems with this because of QALYs are typically calculated from weighted averages and you can't exactly apply population statistics to the individual. But that's a whole other discussion. That's why socialized healthcare countries can demand a drug for x price because they actually do have a choice to not buy it.

 

[WedgeDawg]

moving to topics in healthcare