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American drug cartel raised prices 97,000%, bribed doctors to boost sales


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I had a pretty bad experience recently. My prescription plan wanted to switch me over to 90 day supplies of my meds with home delivery. My dr sends in the request but I wouldn't get the delivery until Thursday. I would run out of meds before then and they refused to let me get my antidepressant at a local pharmacy. Had to miss a day of work because if I skip an a day of taking pristiq I get withdrawal symptoms. 

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15 minutes ago, Zaku3 said:

I had a pretty bad experience recently. My prescription plan wanted to switch me over to 90 day supplies of my meds with home delivery. My dr sends in the request but I wouldn't get the delivery until Thursday. I would run out of meds before then and they refused to let me get my antidepressant at a local pharmacy. Had to miss a day of work because if I skip an a day of taking pristiq I get withdrawal symptoms. 

Dude. Maybe stop thinking about yourself and take one for the team! Teeeaaam Ameeeerrrrrriiicaaaaaa! Amerrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiccccccccccaaaaaaaaaa!

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It's almost hard to understand how this can happen. As the article points out, most of the $2B spent on this drug was from Medicare. How was it that there's not some kind of price control built into Medicare? It seems like a simple rule that says Medicare won't accept a price increase beyond inflation + x% would fix this kind of thing. As long as X is less than 900% it would have caught this.

 

Bribing doctors is almost a completely separate issue. Yeah, it's bad, and yeah, basically everything about how drugs are marketed (to doctors and patients) should be overhauled, but it seems like the core problem here is that raising the price of a drug by 1000% year over year doesn't raise a red flag anywhere. Punish everyone involved here, but also maybe we should make it harder to just jack up the price of medicine for no particular reason.

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17 hours ago, TwinIon said:

It's almost hard to understand how this can happen. As the article points out, most of the $2B spent on this drug was from Medicare. How was it that there's not some kind of price control built into Medicare? It seems like a simple rule that says Medicare won't accept a price increase beyond inflation + x% would fix this kind of thing. As long as X is less than 900% it would have caught this.

 

Bribing doctors is almost a completely separate issue. Yeah, it's bad, and yeah, basically everything about how drugs are marketed (to doctors and patients) should be overhauled, but it seems like the core problem here is that raising the price of a drug by 1000% year over year doesn't raise a red flag anywhere. Punish everyone involved here, but also maybe we should make it harder to just jack up the price of medicine for no particular reason.

 

Hyper capitalism baby. 

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19 hours ago, TwinIon said:

It's almost hard to understand how this can happen. As the article points out, most of the $2B spent on this drug was from Medicare. How was it that there's not some kind of price control built into Medicare? It seems like a simple rule that says Medicare won't accept a price increase beyond inflation + x% would fix this kind of thing. As long as X is less than 900% it would have caught this.

 

Isn't Medicare explicitly forbidden from negotiating drug prices? They gouge Medicare because they can.

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41 minutes ago, Jason said:

Isn't Medicare explicitly forbidden from negotiating drug prices? They gouge Medicare because they can.

That sounds like exactly the kind of insanity that is very likely enshrined in law, I don't really know. Either way, it seems like maybe that shouldn't be the case.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/insurance/a-2-million-drug-is-about-to-hit-the-market/ar-AAB1eN9?ocid=AMZN

Quote

A new treatment for an infant muscle-wasting disease is about to go on sale at a potential cost of $2 million, a record price tag likely to fuel the continuing scrutiny of how companies price their drugs and how insurers pay for them.

Novartis AG has yet to set a price for the gene therapy called Zolgensma, but executives say the drug’s potential to cure spinal muscular atrophy, an inherited disease that typically kills babies before they turn two, justifies a seven-figure price.

Gene therapies target diseases that result from a faulty gene by introducing a working version into the body. They are attracting interest, both for their ability to cure otherwise devastating illnesses in one treatment and also for their high cost. Luxturna, the only gene therapy on sale in the U.S. so far to treat a form of inherited sight loss, costs $850,000 a patient.

 

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/drug-prices-must-be-revealed-in-tv-ads-under-new-trump-rule/ar-AAB67a0?ocid=AMZN

Quote

Pharmaceutical companies will have to reveal the price for many prescription drugs in TV commercials, under a new rule announced by the Trump administration Wednesday. The requirement is part of President Trump's efforts to crack down on drug costs — one of his few initiatives to earn wide bipartisan support.

Under the rule, which is set to go into effect over the summer, drugmakers will have to disclose prices in ads for any medication that costs more than $35 for a month's supply. It's similar to the current requirement for drug companies to spell out a drug's side effects in TV ads.

 

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