What's wrong with Drug Companies???

[amirm]

I have been battling foot pain for the last few months, trying everything my foot doctor throws at me.

He gave me samples of a medication whose name escapes me just now. He said to try them and if they did not upset my stomach I could ask him for a prescription. I took a couple and noticed an improvement. Attached to the pills was a coupon that said they would pay for the deductible. Thinking it was then free to me, I should go ahead and try it.

I go to my favorite pharmacy to pick up the medication and they give me a puzzled look as they pull it up. The pharmacist then follows by saying, "they split your medication into two separate ones." Two separate ones? What does that mean? She proceed to say that my insurance would not cover that medication and if I wanted it, it would cost $1,060 for 30 pills! That is $32 per pill!

Wait it gets better. Worried that the replacement would not be as good I questioned her on what the difference was. She said absolutely nothing. That the samples I got were simply the combination of Prilosec and prescription strength Tylenol (or some other common pain killer). And that both are available as generics and my cost would be two times my $15 deductible.

I couldn't believe my ears. A $32 pill is just a combination of two generics? I looked at the sample I had and she was right: the ingredients were identical.

Today I was at my foot doctor again and I asked him about this and said that they had asked the distributor for options once my insurance company declined. And it was his idea to substitute these two medications.

I asked the pharmacist who would buy the $1000 prescription and she said, "whoever has insurance that covers it."

Am I the only one who considers this system completely broken? $32 for a single pill that is just a common pain killer and antacid?

 

[mep]

I wish I could say I was surprised and shocked, but I'm not. The whole system is crooked from top to bottom.

 

[zztop7]

Doctors receives MASSIVE kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies.

The more important thing is to determine WHY the foot pain exists.

zz.

 

[JackD201]

The Tylenol is for your foot. The Prilosec is for the insurance company. Sorry Amir, I couldn't resist.

 

[rbbert]

This is a good example of what is wrong with our health care system. It really doesn't matter if the USA has the "best" doctors and hospitals; a nation's health and the effectiveness of its health care system are determined by delivery of medical care that makes a difference. That's usually not compatible with our current for-profit anti-competitive system.

Which saves more lives (in person years); H flu B, pneumococcal and measles vaccines or coronary artery stenting and/or bypass surgery? Which costs less? Which is more "glamorous"?

 

[Asamel]

Massive kickbacks? I haven't gotten a pen nor a French fry in decades.

 

[Asamel]

Why would anyone combine Tylenol with Prilosec? There's no GI issue with Tylenol?

 

[amirm]

Why would anyone combine Tylenol with Prilosec? There's no GI issue with Tylenol?

Sorry that is my bad. It was the prescription strength version of an OTC pain killer and I just used Tylenol as place holder . I just looked it up and it is Naxproxen which is Aleve. The amount is 500 mg.

 

[amirm]

The Tylenol is for your foot. The Prilosec is for the insurance company. Sorry Amir, I couldn't resist.

Hehe .

 

[andy_c]

Sounds to me like an industry for which deregulation and tax cuts are in order!

 

[Asamel]

Be careful what you wish for. Drug company profits are far from what they used to be (with some rare exceptions). In my area we are having drug shortages on a daily basis. If you make a drug generic and there is little money to be made no one will make it.

 

[rbbert]

Be careful what you wish for. Drug company profits are far from what they used to be (with some rare exceptions). In my area we are having drug shortages on a daily basis. If you make a drug generic and there is little money to be made no one will make it.

And yet those drugs keep getting made in European countries (that's where our hospital usually finds those shortage drugs) where patent protection is effectively shorter than in the US and drug company profits in general are far less.

 

[DaveyF]

Sounds to me like an industry for which deregulation and tax cuts are in order!

Yes Sir, a great idea.. I'm calling my lobbyist right now.

 

[still-one]

Be careful what you wish for. Drug company profits are far from what they used to be (with some rare exceptions). In my area we are having drug shortages on a daily basis. If you make a drug generic and there is little money to be made no one will make it.

Drug compnay profits might actually go up if they would quit the incessant TV advertising.

 

[dingus]

....If you make a drug generic and there is little money to be made no one will make it.

which illuminates the core problem with the health care system, that is a for-profit industry where capitalism dictates policy and patient care is a second tier priority at best.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Be careful what you wish for. Drug company profits are far from what they used to be (with some rare exceptions). In my area we are having drug shortages on a daily basis. If you make a drug generic and there is little money to be made no one will make it.

If you put time limits on patents, which is how drugs become "generic," it doesn't guarantee that there is little money to be made, it guarantees that there will be competition. If the competition gets so heated and the price so low that most manufacturers drop out, the remaining manufacturer is free to raise the price. The existence of competition is not price controls, but it is a market mechanism that can control prices. There's a difference.

With that said, back to Amir's initial question: There's nothing wrong with the drug companies. They are publicly-traded companies in a capitalistic system, and at the end of the day their only objective is to give their shareholders the best return on investment that they can. If they can do that by combining two generic drugs into one pill, getting a new patent that locks out competition for a few more years, and charge an outrageous sum for it, they're just doing their job. The question, of course, is why are doctors prescribing it and why are any insurance companies paying for it?

The problems are systemic, and IMO, the place to begin is by asking ourselves if healthcare should be motivated solely by profit. In spite of many wonderful care-givers, most of whom serve out of passion and compassion, not greed, the healtcare industry is all about the money. I'm a capitalist. But there are some places unfettered capitalism does not belong. Much of healthcare is, IMO, on the list.

Tim

 

[mep]

Drug compnay profits might actually go up if they would quit the incessant TV advertising.

Drug companies own the national news at 6:30 PM every night. And since drug companies are catering to the boomer market, most commercials are about erectile dysfunction and post-menopausal vagina issues.

 

[Asamel]

Maybe but my field, anesthesia, hasn't had a new drug in decades. There is no money in it so no research, no new drugs. We have emails about drug shortages every day - atropine, propofol, fentanyl, neostigmine, glycopyrolate, local anesthetics...

It reminds me of stories about working in eastern Europe that I hear from friends.

 

[mep]

Maybe but my field, anesthesia, hasn't had a new drug in decades. There is no money in it so no research, no new drugs. We have emails about drug shortages every day - atropine, propofol, fentanyl, neostigmine, glycopyrolate, local anesthetics...

It reminds me of stories about working in eastern Europe that I hear from friends.

I thought Michael Jackson used up a 20 year world-wide supply of propofol.

 

[Asamel]

By the way, you can buy the drug that started this thread for $2 a pill.