Big Pharma prices and drugs

It doesn’t really click with people how expensive medication is until they become sick or a family member does. Constantly rising drug cost are affecting Americans everyday. Big Pharma is getting away with this and the opioid epidemic.

Rising drug expenditures are horrible because when you read so much about people continuing to struggle to afford to pay for their prescription medications, the innovation almost does not matter. If we as a country are not taking care of our people the advancement in technology and medication in healthcare is fruitless. The people who need the medications can not afford the medications. Having millions of life saving drugs sitting on shelves in pharmacies is counterproductive. “

There is this story of Elaine Kett, a 78-year-old Florida woman who spent $10,000 a year on the twelve prescriptions she took, but who only had $20,000 of annual income. Another great example is Gary Woods, a disabled Arkansas man in his fifties, who spent over a quarter of his monthly government disability check which was around $300 a month, on prescription medications.

Stories like these are in the tens of thousands in the US with no change in sight. Drug prices will just continue to increase and people will still be elderly or sick or both and not able to afford them.

Innovation with out life preservation is useless. prescription drug expenditures will continue to increase , both because of increased use of drugs and the introduction of new higher priced drugs.The text also states this reduces non-pharmaceutical medical cost by reducing the need for therapy or surgeries by taking pills. That is not a benefit to me but more like being brainwashed to believe if you pop a pill all your problems go away. It is all about draining more money out of consumers ultimately. Working as a nurse I do know that medications do help people stay healthy and alive but many do not, are over prescribed, or the patient is taking the medication longer than they should. Many medications have very harsh long term side effects as well. Replacing old drugs with new drugs is said to be a reason why prices are high and that is a good reason to some. It is not in my eyes. The people should not suffer because of this.

The advertisement of these medical products and endorsements from celebrities will make every person think these medications have a one size fits all affect regardless of cost or actual benefit like Botox. It may even have almost a placebo effect for these people just because of the brand name and their belief that it will work for them. I agree doctors have a tough job these days convincing patients to try certain medications that will benefit or try a cheaper medication with the same results and less side effects. We live in a capitalist, monkey see monkey do society. It is sad.

Pharmaceutical marketing has gone too far. It is extremely hard for anyone to avoid watching the commercials or seeing the billboards because when they want to advertise a drug the drug will spare no expense to make sure every American knows about it. The drug OxyContin was originally marketed as less addictive, less subject to abuse, and less likely to cause withdrawal than other pain killers. All this was untrue. By 2004, OxyContin had become the leading drug of abuse in the U.S. Critics claim the pharmaceutical company misrepresented the risks and benefits of Oxycontin. This same scenario has occurred with Norco and Tramadol. Tramadol was not even a controlled substance until a few years ago. It is a shame that America is at this point now and pharmaceutical companies are getting small fines and nobody is facing jail time.