Stan Galat posted:Todd M posted:If you think the price of any product is unfair, make it yourself, sell it for less, and you will be a billionaire. Unless of course, it is unprofitable to sell it for less. As far as I know, and please correct me if I am wrong, I do not have a right to anybody else's property including their medicine. I do not have a right to buy anybody's property, including their medicine.
Sun Pharma (in India) is doing exactly that-- happily making a product and selling it for quite a bit less than the US drug company that makes the name brand.
They aren't selling something that belongs to someone else-- they are selling a formula not approved by the FDA that is different (by one molecule in a very complex molecular structure) than the name-brand. My wife finds the modified (generic) medication more effective than the name brand. The reason the entire thing is gray-market is because the FDA (which is firmly in the pocket of big pharma) has not approved it. This is shocking to exactly no one with even a passing understanding of how the drug business works.
The fact that a similar drug can be made and sold (everywhere but here) for 2 cents on the dollar tells me everything I need to know about the ethics of the pharma industry and what belongs to whom. The government props up the drug companies by giving them ridiculously long (and broad) patent protection, because big pharma pays the FDA's way. Each entity (the companies and the FDA) are propped up by their complementary monopolies.
It's anti-competitive in the extreme.
So let me see if I understand. Since you perceive the FDA to be in cahoots with the pharma companies, then it is justified that the government take my money and your money to pay for someone else's drugs? Exactly which pharma company is it that you think is in cahoots with the FDA and is making too much money as a result? Or if more than one, which pharma companies? If you think the FDA is corrupt resulting in higher drug costs, would that not be evidence to you that government involvement makes drugs cost more, not less?