Very interesting article – in the New Yorker, of all places – concerning the economics of prescription drugs (at least once one gets past the usual tirade against drug companies in the beginning, which ignores the need to recoup sunk costs into research for drugs that didn’t pan out):
Given that re-importation is not a panacea, and price controls have an established history of denuding quality where ever and whenever they are tried, it makes sense to try to approach the issue from different angles.
It might be best if we could unify the drug examination process with other countries like Canada. If the drug laws were more unified, if one is approved in Canada, then it could be approved here, and visa versa.
There has to be ways to simplify, and reduce the costs of examining drugs. Also if a person is dying, they should have better access to experimental drugs, knowing the risks of course. If you have no chance at all of living, why not allow yourself to become a guinea pig, especially if there is a chance it might save your life.
And any animal rights activist that slows research by breaking into these animal testing labs should be sentenced to become replacement animals. (I will admit that there has to be some intelligence in animal testing. Just ask Dr. Dr Henry Heimlich.)
I’m a Research Scientist for a Pharmaceutical company and can tell you that the article is 100% on the money. The only other thing that it didn’t mention is the health care insurance companies involvement. Many times the drug costs get artificially inflated so that the insurance companies can make money as well. It is a very complicated web of money, lies and deceit that will not be undone in the next 4 years or anytime after that without some major explosions.