Amazing how much lifesaving meds are overpriced in the US

[Angelo Farina]

It’s true but I think the US has much higher prices for the same medication than most (if not all) countries in Europe (even if you include medication bought by European public medical services)

A random google, shows the ridiculous example of insulin, I have not fact checked the link below …

Insulin Prices 8x Higher in the US Compared to Similar Nations

In 2018, the average insulin prices in the US was $98.70, compared to $6.94 in Australia, $12.00 in Canada, and $7.52 in the UK.

pharmanewsintel.com

Insulin is totally free here...
You cannot buy it, it can only be prescribed, and when prescribed it is free.

 

[Cert1967]

Free? Does it fall from the sky?

Insulin is totally free here...
You cannot buy it, it can only be prescribed, and when prescribed it is free.

 

[lionfish-eater]

Free? Does it fall from the sky?

No it grows wild along the side of the road.

Seriously though, some advanced societies have decided to spend some of the public funds for the good of it's citizens or at least regulate the amount of profits that can be charged for something deemed necessary. Like we regulate electric and gas utilities.

 

[DandyDon]

Insulin is totally free here...

Government funded might be a more appropriate description.

Seriously though, some advanced societies have decided to spend some of the public funds for the good of it's citizens or at least regulate the amount of profits that can be charged for something deemed necessary. Like we regulate electric and gas utilities.

I do have to wonder why medicines are not included in that.

 

[lexvil]

Free? Does it fall from the sky?

Free, like that road you used to get to work, the cop sitting in his car waiting for your call, free like the fire department who will rush to save your house when needed, free like that where you pay a tiny fraction of the cost.

 

[BlueTrin]

Government funded might be a more appropriate description.

I do have to wonder why medicines are not included in that.

The argument that is always used is that if you limit the prices then it will reduce research. So some will argue that it’s better to have an expensive medicine than no medicine at all?

 

[DandyDon]

The argument that is always used is that if you limit the prices then it will reduce research. So some will argue that it’s better to have an expensive medicine than no medicine at all?

How much of the dramatic price increases of insulin and EpiPens went to research? There is a lot of corruption and mismanagement in government-funded research, but I trust it more than supply & demand marketing.

And why is the medicine illustrated in post #1 98% cheaper in India even after shipping costs are added in? Research is not involved in that.

 

[lionfish-eater]

The argument that is always used is that if you limit the prices then it will reduce research. So some will argue that it’s better to have an expensive medicine than no medicine at all?

This is the same argument that is used over and over to extort money from the middle class.
I.E. Too big to fail
Unless we bail out the banks for gambling with our deposits they will turn off the ATM's.

In reality, the vast majority of research is performed at universities, many of which are publicly funded.

 

[kinoons]

This is the same argument that is used over and over to extort money from the middle class.
I.E. Too big to fail
Unless we bail out the banks for gambling with our deposits they will turn off the ATM's.

In reality, the vast majority of research is performed at universities, many of which are publicly funded.

The universities may be publicly funded, but their research programs often are not. Many times academic research is funded by industry.

It also appears that much of the research isn’t performed at a university at all.

A recent study found that for only 25 percent of drugs approved from 2008 to 2017 was there any documented contribution, of any magnitude, to a drug’s initial discovery, synthesis, or key intellectual property by a public sector research institution or academic “spin-off” company 7. This finding corroborated a review of approvals from 1998 to 2007, which found that publicly funded research helped either identify the chemical structure of the final compound or its direct antecedents or demonstrated therapeutic proof-of-concept for the target for only about a third of new drugs 8. If one uses a more stringent definition of “contribution” based solely on intellectual property, then taxpayers’ role in drug discovery is even smaller; less than 15 percent of new medicines are covered by even a single patent that was either directly issued to a public entity or contains a “government interest statement” acknowledging public funding 7, 9, 10.

Public research funding and pharmaceutical prices: do Americans pay twice for drugs?

In the debate over prescription drug pricing, some pharmaceutical industry critics claim that U.S. taxpayers pay twice for costly therapies, because publicly supported research is a major contributor to drug discovery and American taxpayers are inadequately ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[lionfish-eater]

The universities may be publicly funded, but their research programs often are not. Many times academic research is funded by industry.

It also appears that much of the research isn’t performed at a university at all.

Public research funding and pharmaceutical prices: do Americans pay twice for drugs?

In the debate over prescription drug pricing, some pharmaceutical industry critics claim that U.S. taxpayers pay twice for costly therapies, because publicly supported research is a major contributor to drug discovery and American taxpayers are inadequately ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Or you could choose this portion of the article:

There is little debate that public funding of basic science is a critical enabler of drug development 1, 2. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the world’s largest government funder of biomedical research, and makes financial and practical contributions to all stages of it, including pre-clinical scientific investigations, translational medicine, and clinical trials. Detailed case studies reveal that public support has played at least some role in virtually all of the 26 most clinically and commercially significant drugs and drug classes approved over the past several decades