Are the Drug Companies and the Government Against You?
- By:Mark Ramirez
Ever wonder why you have to pay so much for your prescription medication? Ever feel like you are being taken advantage of? Don’t worry your not alone. Recently, the prices on prescription medication have jumped past the point of inflation. Stock in the drug companies is dropping but at the same time drug companies are recording record profits. What is going on?
The reason America has excessively high drug prices is because of our lack of drug price controls. The government claims that the reason we don’t have price controls is because it stops creativity and far less innovative drugs are produced. But drug companies seem to be producing the same drugs we’ve had for the last 20 years. As stated in the book, The Truth About Drug Companies, "in the seven years from 1998 to 2004 only 22 percent of new drugs on the were judged by the FDA to offer improvements over drugs already on the market to treat the same condition, and most of those were not made by major American drug companies… In 2004 only four came from the top nine American drug companies.”
Creativity is supposedly stifled by price controls yet America still isn’t producing enough innovative new drugs. That leads me to ask, so if the money isn’t going into research and development, where is it going? The answer is simple, marketing. Large American drug companies are spending more on marketing to sell the public “new and improved” versions of the same drugs we already have. Ever notice that you see more advertisements for drugs these days? That’s because companies like Pfizer s are spending more on advertising than ever. According to The Fortune 500, Phizer had a profit margin of 22 percent of its $53 billion in sales. Of that, 32 percent was spent marketing while only 16 percent was spent on research and development.
Even though America is the only modern nation in the world that does not have price controls on its prescription medication, there are alternatives right? Not that they want you to know about. The government won’t introduce price controls, but when prices become too high, they frown upon going through other sources to fill your prescriptions. The reason the government does not allow other countries to sell medications in our market is that they are unsafe. On that note, Merk took its Drug Vioxx (which sells over a billion dollars a year) off the market due to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, which led to an investigation into all of the types of drugs in its field. The advisory panel recommended that all of the drugs of its type be taken off the market. Despite the panels’ advice, the FDA banned a different drug and allowed Vioxx back on the market.
The drug companies and the government are not here to provide us new innovative drugs, they’re not here to protect us from drugs that pose possible health risks, and they are certainly not here to save us money. So what are they here for? To make money. So how do you get around all of this manipulation and corruption? Look for your prescription drugs in a different market. Canada and Mexico deliver the same drugs that are sold on American shelves from anywhere to 50 to 80 percent less. The website PremierMexicanPharmacies.com compiles all of the most reputable Mexican and Canadian pharmacies, and delivers to you the lowest price of all the foreign pharmacies. PremierMexicanPharmacies.com also has a rating system which uses the feedback left by members to better inform you about the pharmacy you will be purchasing from.
Visit this Consumer Advocacy website for more information on ordering from mexican pharmacies
About the author:
Mark Ramirez is the President of Premier Mexican Pharmacies.com. His company allows you to locate and compare prices on prescription drugs from overseas, Canada, and Mexico. Mark has been in the pharmaceutical search industry since 1999 and has quickly become one of the most widely used pharmaceutical resource sites. Visit this Consumer Advocacy website for more information on ordering from mexican pharmacies.