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A comment on The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the Books. Parent comment

Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B... by AnthonyMouse on Monday May 14, 2018 @02:49AM (#17063292)
> But then those 160,000 other patients are either getting medication that they don't need or are getting medication which is inferior to something else which they should have gotten but has inferior advertising.

Yes, if the advertising is total bullocks that is what happens. But getting rid of the advertising still doesn't make the price of the drug go down for the people who actually need it.

And it's at least theoretically possible for the advertising to help patients who otherwise wouldn't have known about the drug, e.g. because they asked a doctor about it years ago and there was no treatment then even though there is one now.

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Re:The Best Fix for American Drug Prices Is Already on the B... by stinkbug on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @08:18AM (#17073364)
Yes of course the advertisements are total bollocks. That is the claim. You are making these very strident back-of-the-envelope "economics" arguments without realizing that the economic ideal for the health care industry is to provide therapies that make people sicker, thereby ensuring their return for more therapies.
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