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On Sat, 27 Nov 2010 15:20:20 -0500, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Nov 2010 10:30:27 -0800, wrote:

You are not going to see me defend the way big pharma markets drugs
but they are the only ones with the capability to develop new drugs.
Personally I think we are over drugged. The doctors and the drug
companies have convinced us we haven't been to the doctor unless we
come home with a couple prescriptions.
Unfortunately they will usually be the ones the drug salesman is
pumping, whether it really helps you or not. A hint is what you see on
all the pens and note pads at the doctor's office.

I am the only person I know my age who is not taking 3 or 4 pills a
day. I take 2 fish oil capsules and that is it.

I'm glad you're not going to defend them. They're indefensible on so
many levels. Yes, they're the only ones capable, but they don't have
to do the orphan disease drugs for a profit. They could do them as
part of a regulatory requirement... funded, but no profit.

There is no way to force a drug company to develop a drug that doesn't
exist yet. You can't even prove it is possible until they actually
make it, test it and get FDA approval (a huge part of the cost).
Of course there is also the lawyer tax. They spent 20 tiles the amount
defending cases against Vioxx than it cost to develop the drug.
Fen Phen was even worse than that. It doesn't help that there are
ambulance chasers on TV telling people that they have money coming,
even if they never had any bad reactions to a drug.

I guess you never heard of NIH funded research? Happens all the time.

Not sure what dangerous drugs on the market without proper
testing/verification has to do with funding research for specialty
drugs, but feel free to attack lawyers if you think that'll solve the
problem of people who have rare diseases not getting the drugs they
need.

So, if marketing the drugs are 50% of the price after they get them to
market, and we reduce that percent to zero, don't you think that'll
lower the cost to the end user? Even if we gave Pharma 10% profit
guaranteed, it would still cost people less.