Lifestyle

Today’s Concerns About Drug Prices Echo The Past

Check out the same language utilized by senators in addition to business CEOs to defend or assault drug costs, business views and sufferers’ hardships paying for medicine.

That was then:

It would seem from the good variety of letters which the subcommittee has acquired that a lot of our residents are experiencing issue in with the ability to buy [medicine].

This is now:

I’ve heard tales about individuals lowering their lifesaving medicines, like insulin, to economize.

That was then:

In France, the antibiotic often called erythromycin is about $four for 25 capsules. In this nation, it’s nearer to $6.

This is now:

Americans pay 180 % of what Europeans, Canadians and Japanese pay for the very same medicine!

That was then:

I bear in mind [a letter] from somewhat girl whose weight had gone right down to 90 kilos. She stated that she needed to have the medicine and to avoid wasting the cash for the medicine, she did with out meals.

This is now:

I came upon that Hunter had determined to buy one vial of insulin as an alternative of the 4 vials he wanted for the month [which cost $1,700]. Unbeknownst to me and my husband, Hunter was rationing his insulin.

That was then:

As lengthy as … good revenue continues to lead to a stream of recent weapons within the warfare in opposition to illness, the American individuals, I consider, are getting an inexpensive cut price.

This is now:

I don’t see an business that you would be able to say is profiteering. I see an business that’s taking its assets and investing right into a high-risk enterprise referred to as “innovation” and making modest returns on the capital in danger.

That was then:

I don’t wish to go into an excessive amount of dialogue of the nauseating, two-page advertisements which fill each medical journal within the nation. You know the kind of advert I imply — in the future you might be shaky and jittery, and the subsequent day you might be calm and joyful, floating round in a sailboat on a lovely blue lake.

This is now:

Direct-to-consumer promoting additionally inflates demand for brand new and costlier medicine, even when these medicine is probably not acceptable.

That was then:

The shopper, within the area, can not train his regular, financial prerogative of purchasing and pricing earlier than he purchases [prescription drugs]. The regular legal guidelines of provide and demand haven’t any utility right here.

This is now:

We want extra transparency and accountability for drug firms who’re jacking up prices for households in want of reasonably priced lifesaving therapies.

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