Prescription Drugs

[Uninformed]

Lipitor just went off patent today. Lipitor generated annual sales of $13 billion at its peak. Now, Ranbaxy and Watson will introduce generics and the price will drop precipitously.

Already, eight of ten prescriptions are for generics. The drug industry still develops me-too drugs but it is becoming increasingly difficult, for example, to create a new cholesterol drug as potent, safe, and widely tested as Lipitor. Because of the difficulty in developing marginally improved me-too drugs, the pharmaceutical industry now focuses on higher priced, specialty products for patients who are not helped by existing options.

So, in my opinion, the problem with the cost of pharmaceuticals will take care of itself as the industry matures. Some people can't wait for prices to come down and the gov't of course always wants intercede. However, that doesn't change the fact that the industry is maturing even as profits grow through new treatments for previously untreatable diseases.

Anyway, what do you think would happen to drug prices if pharmaceutical insurance was decoupled from health insurance? Do you think pharmaceutical prices would go down? Do you think it would cause more or less harm for the general public? Honestly, I don't see the good that comes from having a middleman take profits in pharmaceuticals. Insurance is to guard against things that are rare and risky, not to pay for common everyday occurrences. Perhaps buying groups and coops would provide a better system to keep prices low. Let me know your opinions.

 

[Perham1]

Insurance is to guard against things that are rare and risky....

That is most definitely an inaccurate description of health insurance, which by its nature is designed to cover physician visits for the common cold, wellness checkups, prevention checkups, etc. Those are not "rare or risky". Some types of insurance are like that, no doubt, intended to cover only the catastrophic, but health insurance isn't one of them (although one could argue it should be). But, it isn't. And it shouldn't be, unless we radically change out healthcare system.

 

[Uninformed]

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[Horn89]

Good topic. It would be interesting to see what would happen to drug prices if prescription benefits were decoupled from health plans.

If people had to directly absorb the cost of their drugs, there would be a lot less people taking latest-generation antidepressants, asthma maintenance drugs (advair), etc. It's pretty easy for very young and "healthy" people to end up on two or three of these... to the tune of hundreds of dollars a month... and yet there is an expectation (reasonable?) from the public of nominal co-pays and essentially "covered" meds.

I suspect either the prices would plummet, people would stop taking a lot of things altogether (which, in some cases, might be a good thing), or they'd quickly educate themselves and make their way to equivalent/comparable generics.

I doubt this would ever take place, btw, because the modern American style of government is for corporations to write whatever legislation that affects their profits (e.g. the prescription drug bill of 2003, passed by Republicans just prior to the election, which allowed them to trumpet this "achievment" to their blue-hair constituents, while actually making it illegal for taxpayers to negotiate discounts with the drug companies).

As such, it's probably easier for drug and insurance companies to make big profits if they're getting rich via our run-away national debt instead of individuals writing them a check every month... so that's what I fully expect to keep happening.

 

[Ag with kids]

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[NEWDOC2002]

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[Uninformed]

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[hornpharmd]

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