Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B...
by dasil003 on Sunday May 13, 2018 @10:04PM
(#17062186)
I think the argument is that the drugs would simply not be developed at all. Personally I'm inclined to call the bluff as it's not clear that the profit motive has led to the most effective drug development—there's a huge sales culture in pharmaceuticals that incentivizes prescription drugs beyond the balance that doctors and patients would naturally arrive at.
Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B...
by SilasX on Monday May 14, 2018 @01:12AM
(#17062884)
What if you framed it in terms of the damage Walmart (arguably) does to markets? I mean, they force suppliers to take losses “because of their negotiating power”, right? So maybe every retailer should band together with them and force all supplier profit margins to the same bare minimum for all products. Otherwise you’re leaving money “on the table”, right?
But if that's the case, it just seems like really good evidence that squeezing drug companies and making aggressive demands drives down drug costs and encourages them to move R&D costs out of the country. Why wouldn't the US be all over that?
I dunno, I just always feel like I'm missing something when I see this. Other countries have better health care than us, but we can't use their tactics, even though they seem to be working really well, because... we're nice, and we don't want their drugs to cost more?
If we accept that having R&D based out of the US is a bad thing, then why are we fighting to keep it here? Shouldn't we increase regulation until all the pharmaceuticals move to Canada?