CBO: Pharmaceutical R&D and the Evolving Market for Prescription Drugs

[spursncowboys]

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10681/DrugR&D.shtml

[George Gervin's Afro]

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10681/DrugR&D.shtml

do you have any thoughts on this? or are you just wasting people's time with needless threads?

[boutons_deux]

This is a fluff article on BigPharma.

The article fails to mention how many 100s of 1000s of people BigPharma's FDA-approved drugs have killed or maimed.

BigPharma corps and their capturing of the FDA is a huge component of why the US health care system is broken, INTENTIONALLY by the corps.

[TeyshaBlue]

lol @ CBO doing fluff articles.
lol @ overstating the role of big pharma in our healtcare suckfest.
lol @ boutons not using "repug" in this post.:lol

[TeyshaBlue]

do you have any thoughts on this? or are you just wasting people's time with needless threads?

It's a good read, but takes awhile to digest. I'm pretty interested in the language surrounding rebates. That's one of the larger problems that never seems to get mentioned.

[boutons_deux]

TB,

BigPharma gouging the US market has been documented for years.

eg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/d-brad-wright/the-price-of-prescription_b_379918.html

$100B - $200B EXCESS prescription drug charges in USA. That allows BigPharma enough profit to pay the $Bs in fines the FDA hits them with for killing and maiming pill poppers and promoting off-label usages.

That's a cost which must be reduced to control US health bill.

GFY

[TeyshaBlue]

TB,

BigPharma gouging the US market has been documented for years.

eg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/d-brad-wright/the-price-of-prescription_b_379918.html

$100B - $200B EXCESS prescription drug charges in USA. That allows BigPharma enough profit to pay the $Bs in fines the FDA hits them with for killing and maiming pill poppers and promoting off-label usages.

That's a cost which must be reduced to control US health bill.

GFY
Get an adult to read this post to you. You are overstating the pharma component in the overall picture of the healthcare fiasco. It's a player, but not the major player you think it is by itself. You need to consider the gestalt between pharma & insurance, or more specifically, pharma & GPOs.
Think deeper than the superficial huffpo fluff piece.

[spursncowboys]

It's a good read, but takes awhile to digest. I'm pretty interested in the language surrounding rebates. That's one of the larger problems that never seems to get mentioned.
What do you mean?

[TeyshaBlue]

What do you mean?

Rebates are the difference between the AWP (Average Wholesale Price) of a drug and the contract price it was purchased under. If the AWP of Tylenol is $5, and Bob's Hospital contracts with a GPO such as Novation to purchase that for $3, then Novation recieves a $2 rebate from the manufacturer. However, Novation may actually get more than that $2 due to side letters regarding quantity or spec buys on drugs before a price increases. Bristol Meyers Squibb got spanked pretty hard several years ago for offering large discounts to wholesalers and GPOs for advance purchases near fiscal year end to inflate their earnings and P&L. Those additional price reductions, via rebates, were not passed on to the consumer and rarely, if ever, are. It's extra profit for the GPO & wholesaler.

[spursncowboys]

By shielding individuals from the full costs of the drugs they use, insurance encourages higher spending on drugs. For example, spending can increase when insured individuals fill prescriptions that they would have forgone if they lacked insurance or when those individuals choose a more expensive drug than they would have if they faced the full cost.