[LisaE]

Re: How generic drugs can be delayed or blocked

by LisaE on Fri Apr 01, 2016 1:01 pm

"It appears that the big drug companies, which are forced to take less in Europe and Canada, make up for it by charging more in the US."

I think the term "make up for it" is misleading. It sounds like they aren't making money, when in fact they are simply gouging where they can. Much of the research is publicly funded, and the pharma industry has some of the highest profit margins around - higher than any industry except banking.

The US allows inflated pricing, and the companies are delighted to enjoy it.

[Nancy Shamanna]

Re: How generic drugs can be delayed or blocked

by Nancy Shamanna on Fri Apr 01, 2016 2:30 pm

Hi Lisa, the issue of drug pricing is very complex, IMO. Although we know that there are major drug lobbyists trying their best to extend patents, maybe just by tweaking a formulation somewhat, there are real concerns about us patients getting the newer drugs too. If I could use a comparison to antibiotics, there are concerns about us not having the antibiotics we need in the future, simply because the profit margin is not much there for that category of drug. The latest type of antibiotic may be the last type to be tried on a patient, after the usual ones have failed. Thus, there may not be high sales of a recently developed antibiotic. In Canada, for highly priced chemotherapy drugs, we do have a national pricing system, thankfully. However, we do not yet have all of the most recent myeloma drugs, eg. Darzalex. Thus the drug companies have to be interested in selling their drugs here, so I think it is best to treat them with respect!