Big Pharma Presses US To Quash Cheap Drug Production In India

[ElNono]

Big Pharma Presses US To Quash Cheap Drug Production In India

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), are leaning on the United States government to discourage India from allowing the production and sale of affordable generic drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/big-pharma-pushes-u-action-093131997.html).
India is currently on the U.S. government's Priority Watch List — countries whose practices on protecting intellectual property Washington believes should be monitored closely. Last year Novartis lost a six-year legal battle (http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/04/02/0037255/indian-supreme-court-denies-novartis-cancer-drug-patent) after the Indian Supreme court ruled that small changes and improvements to the drug Glivec did not amount to innovation deserving of a patent. Western drugmakers Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche Holding, Sanofi, and others have a bigger share of the fast-growing drug market in India.
But they have been frustrated by a series of decisions on patents and pricing, as part of New Delhi's push to increase access to life-saving treatments in a place where only 15 percent of 1.2 billion people are covered by health insurance. One would certainly understand and probably agree with the need for for cheaper drugs. But don't forget that big pharma, for all its problems still is the number one creator of new drugs (http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/11/04/where_drugs_come_from_the_numbers.php). In 2012 alone, the U.S. government and private companies spent a combined $130 billion (http://www.researchamerica.org/uploads/healthdollar12.pdf) (PDF) on medical research.

[Trainwreck2100]

:lol 1300 for a cancer pill

:lol pay up or die

[boutons_deux]

Bayer's CEO: We Develop Drugs For Rich Westerners, Not Poor Indians

"We did not develop this medicine for Indians," Dekkers said Dec. 3. "We developed it for western patients who can afford it."

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140124/09481025978/big-pharma-ceo-we-develop-drugs-rich-westerners-not-poor.shtml

[Winehole23]

can we buy medicine from India? if not, what's the problem?

access to their market?

[boutons_deux]

can we buy medicine from India? if not, what's the problem?

access to their market?

sure, online Canandian pharmacies are selling stuff from India, and it's not all generic, includes original, legit drugs greymarketed into US. US victims of BigPharma pay many times more for drugs than does the rest of the world.

A dubya/Repug regulation, one regulation the Repugs love, FORBIDS the US govt from acting as single buyer and from negotiating BigPharma prices down. Just another way Repugs have enabled wealth transfer upwards from Human-Americans to Corporate-Americans. The Repug govt, governing objective is to fleece H-As while enriching/protecting C-As, behind their god-guns-gays smokescreen.

A big problem for NA/EU BigPharma is trying to stop India from producing patented drugs.

[Winehole23]

boutons, I meant, can't I buy drugs online at India's prices?

C'mon, hook a brother up . . .

[Winehole23]

you said greymarketed . . .

[boutons_deux]

boutons, I meant, can't I buy drugs online at India's prices?

C'mon, hook a brother up . . .

AllDayChemist.com has served me very well for years (when I had now-illegal catastrophe insurance with sky-high deductible).

[boutons_deux]

OECD warns high-priced drugs are stretching health budgets

Specialty medicines for which pharmaceutical companies demand high prices are straining wealthy nations' health budgets, the OECD said on Wednesday, with drugs accounting for some 20 percent of all health spending.

Across the 33 OECD countries, pharmaceutical spending reached $800 billion in 2013, and new drugs and rising demand are likely to continue to push that level higher, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said.

On average, one in every five health dollars is spent on pharmaceuticals in OECD countries, raising concerns about how long patients and governments can afford such expensive drugs.

"The emergence of new high-cost, specialty medicines targeting small populations and/or complex conditions has prompted new debate on the long-term sustainability and efficiency of pharmaceutical spending," the organization said.

In the United States, 2013 spending per person on medicines was twice the OECD average and more than 35 percent higher than in Japan, the next biggest spender, the Paris-based OECD said in its "Health at a Glance" report.

At the other end of the scale, Denmark spent less than half the OECD average of $500 per person on retail pharmaceuticals.

The OECD's report offers more ammunition for industry critics, such as U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who argue that drugmakers are overcharging some wealthy nations for their medicines.

An analysis carried out for Reuters last month found that U.S. prices for the world's 20 top-selling drugs are, on average, three times higher than in Britain.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/04/us-health-oecd-medicines-idUSKCN0ST17G20151104?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

aka, re-distribution of wealth upwards from citizens to BigPharma and its capitalistic investors. That re-distribution is enthusiastically endorsed by Repugs and conservatives. It's the "free market", free to screw everybody.