Alli - this is from their website. Really.

[Lucy 0]

No I don't work for a Big Pharma company. I think insurance companies get a bad rap too but I don't work for one of them either.

To the previous poster, yes, it is a business. Just like your doctor. However, no one is saying the "Big Doctors" are only doing surgery for money -but they are. What's the difference? Why isn't anyone outraged at "Big Doctors"? It's not illegal or immoral in America to make money. Let's not forget that.

And how do we know if something is overpriced? Do we know how much research money they spent? How much it costs to pay their employees? How much it costs for raw materials, patents, lawyers, manufacturing, etc?

I don't disagree with you about the ads though. Just don't think lawyers or pharmaceuticals should be on TV. Just an opinion though.

I agree that insurance companies take advantage of everyone. My insurance company wouldn't have paid for my band if I had a BMI of 98, I paid for my surgery out of pocket.

You ask very good questions. How do we know something is overpriced? Being that pharmaceutical companies don't publish their accounting records (or at least that I can find) we really don't know for sure. But we can make educated guesses. Everything that we buy is marked up -- e.g. the iPod only costs about $150 to make, but Apple sells it for $300+. As an electronics company, making something that no one needs, they can charge whatever they want. Anyone who wants to pay $5000 for a handbag with a name brand on it can do as they please and I don't care if Prada charges that much for their product since it's a luxury item that we can all live without.

But when a phamarceutical company produces, say, a prescription medication for lowering cholesterol that can save your life and they place a 20 year patent on it and charge you hundreds of dollars for it I somehow have a difficult time believing that it cost them that much money to make it. The clearest evidence of this is generic drugs -- why is it that when a patent runs out and the generic is produced, the cost of the drug decreases dramatically? Is the drug made from different materials? I don't think so.

Lastly, have you noticed how many name-brand drugs are out there for lowering cholesterol? For helping acid reflux? For depression? For sleep? What's the common thread here? These are all drugs that need to be taken daily, maybe for the rest of your life. When was the last time a pharmaceutical company came out with a new antibiotic? Everyone freaked out about the guy with TB who flew across the world, but the truth is, if pharmaceutical companies spent more time developing new drugs to address temporary illnesses such as TB that have morphed into stronger strains and less time coming up with a new pill to treat erectile dysfunction, maybe they could address some other medical problems in the world. Big Pharma would rather create a "new" name brand drug that barely differs from Lipitor, so that they can make money from people who take it every day than create new drugs to battle occasional sickness.

I'll get off my soapbox now. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

[TerriDoodle 6]

We went out with friends for dinner and I ordered fish, he got Pasta and our friends got pizza. My hubby said out loud "Wow, that pizza's got a lot of squeezins on it" and our friend said "I know! Doesn't it look yummy?" We were both on the floor! Our other friend was like "what?" We just changed the subject and went on with dinner but in the car we laughed all the way home.

That's HILARIOUS! Your friends must think ya'll are loco. No way you could have explained it to them...NOT at the dinner table...for sure. LOL

[cyndilou29 0]

Lucy,

I have to get back on my soapbox now and I hate to do it because this is a really fun post but you are just flat wrong.

The reason generics are cheaper is because they don't have to do any drug discovery. Do you think that God comes down from heaven and says "if you make it like this, you will cure diabetes"? No, it takes hundreds of compounds that fail completely before you find the one that works. Generic companies don't have to do that. They just have to make a copy of the same drug. And they aren't tremendously cheaper either. I was on Seasonale and I paid $178 for it. I went on the generic about a year ago and it cost $159. Not the huge savings you are thinking.

When was the last time an antibiotic was made? Um all the time. There are tons of antibiotics in development but after years of overuse and lots of antibacterial soap honestly, "bugs" are resistant to the new ones too.

And the "common thread here" is that all these conditions are things that millions of people suffer from. It's called supply and demand. People need cholesterol drugs so companies make them. There are lots of drugs to treat TB but again due to overuse of antibiotics, many don't work anymore. There are many drugs in development but it takes YEARS to hit the market and that is only IF they pass all the clinical trials to prove they are effective and won't kill you. There are many, many companies making drugs that only help a smaller group of people - many of the biogenerics are this. There is an orphan drug act that applies to this.

And regarding the 20 year patent? That is from the time the molecule is CREATED. If it takes another 15 years to get to market, that's 5 years of selling time to make up the $100,000,000+ that they spent to create the drug. Then, if there is even the smallest error in the patent they filed, a generic company can come out with a generic right away. How then do they get the $100,000,000 back? Think that doesn't happen? It happens ALL THE TIME.

Lastly, if you can't find accounting records for pharmaceutical companies then you are just not looking. Most of them, almost all of them, are publicly traded companies. You can get an annual report with general info and then call investor relations for more detailed information.

Do your homework and then see if you feel the same way.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Cyndilou...

What you say is absolutely true but I have to admit, I'm becoming more and more annoyed with the politics of drug co's.

I think we'll be hearing some dirt on Inamed in the near future. It doesn't have anything to do with the quality of their products but just because they have a good quality product doesn't mean they are the most ethical company in the world.

Quite frankly, Inamed has the morality of a stray alley cat and in their case, it's the almighty dollar. I have no problem with a business making money, that's what they are in business to do. But not at the expense of patients. At that point they have crossed the line.

[cyndilou29 0]

I am with you a hundred percent as far as Inamed and a few others. The problem is the old "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch" situation. There are "dirty" companies in every single business sector but it doesn't mean the ENTIRE sector is awful.