The High Price Of Drugs In America

The High Price of Drugs in the United States

When we speak about prescription drugs, we have to consider the high cost vs. the affects on the lives of patients in the United States. The population that is most affected from this are the disabled and senior citizens. Research based companies turn out a constant supply of new medicines that lengthen life, enhance its quality, and prevent more expensive medical care. These same companies claim that it is expensive to produce drugs due to the high cost of research and development.

In the process of producing a new medication, we have to see that the results of research and development involves many years, thousands of experimentations with animals and then with humans in different parts of the world. The next stage is to put together all the results and then the companies can determine if it is worth to produce and market. At this point, if the company decides to mass-produce the drug, it has to file for a patent with the government. Every patent has a specific time and period of exclusivity.

In order to understand why some companies charge more than others for the same drugs, we need to reflect on the complete process and its cost. For some medicines, this process could mean millions of dollars and many years. However, this allows the company to produce a "brand name medicine", which is the most expensive type of medicine. Sometimes, this same company produces the same medication with the chemical name and chare less for them, and thus generic medications are made. Once the period expires, then all other companies can produce a cheaper cost drug, since it did not have to spend on research and development.

One must note that in the process of development and producing a medication, the government imposes many regulations and restrictions. This also drives the cost up. For generic medications, government rules are not very stern, and that is why the cost is low.

Once a product is developed, the company has to think about advertising and marketing. This means that they could use television commercials and direct them towards the patients. Also, they could market directly to doctors' offices, which consists of giving the office free samples as well as literature advertising the product.

Alan Holmer, President of industry association, states "Believe me, if we impose price controls on the pharmaceutical industry, and if reduce the research and development it is able to provide, its going to harm my kids and it is going to harm millions of other Americans who have life-threatening conditions" (Holmer 25). By this, he means that if the pharmaceutical industry were to impose restrictions on the prices of drugs, then it would be available to a wider population, which might lead to a misuse of the drug.

Another aspect that raises the costs of medicines is how much the company really spends in political influence. According to Patricia Bony in the article "Drug Industry Sums Guarding Price" released in 2002, the industry employs a "small army" of lobbyists to protect their bottom lines and oppose legislation they don't like. The justification that drug companies use for having this amount of lobbyists is that it is a very large industry and it also tries to avoid lawsuits at all costs so that there are no scandals.

An example of how a company rushed to produce a drug can be seen in Viox, a drug made to soothe extreme muscular pains. This medicine was marketed in the middle of the 1990's and it was not until 2001 or 2002 when reports were made of people having difficulties due to the side effects of the drug. These side effects included heart problems, and it even lead to some deaths. The government then intervened and Viox was finally taken off the market until further investigations were made. Up until now, it is still off the market because the research showed that it was not safe overall and that the side effects could eventually be lethal. There are still many pending lawsuits against the manufacturing company at the present time.

One problem that has recently popped up in the debate of the high price of prescription drugs in the United States is the fact that these same prescription drugs are available for a cheaper price in foreign countries such as Canada and Mexico. The reason drugs are cheaper in these countries is because unlike the U.S, these countries have the ability to cap the prices on the distributors that give them the prescription drugs. With this in mind, the solution to the problem should be easy: Import the drugs from foreign countries to use here. As easy as it sounds, this solution cannot be done because there are laws against importing drugs from other countries like Canada.

As Russel Roberts writes in his article "The High Price of Cheap Drugs", the problem with allowing Americans to import drugs from Canada is that the drug companies would take huge losses in business, and even though this change would help out senior citizens greatly, the U.S. legislation seems to care more about the money than the health of the citizens. However, there are some senators that are willing to fight to pass a bill that would allow the U.S. to import drugs from Canada. Russell states, "At the press conference announcing the legislation, the senators raged against corporate greed, spoke with passion about helping struggling seniors, and argued that allowing re-importation would be a boon to the American people. Senator after senator spoke with deep conviction about how this legislation would lower the price of pharmaceuticals (Roberts).

Due to this information, there are many consumers that are rushing to import drugs from foreign countries, even if it means breaking the law. Along with this, there are many Americans that would rather buy lower-priced supplements instead of buying the expensive prescription drugs for their illnesses. Although the FDA is trying hard to stop this from occurring, it is a very hard task, seeing as how many Internet websites provide anonymous service to those willing to pay a lower amount of money for drugs. (Snow)

As we can see, there are many aspects that determine the cost of medicines: research development advertising, along with lobbying