When Drug Prices Soar

When drug prices skyrocket, there ought to be bold whistle-blowers and clear complaints from the public, and this way, at least pharma companies will come under pressure.

If novel and specialty prescription drugs comes with shocking price tags, then the responsible authority has right to compel respective drug manufacturer to expose the research and development costs, explicit profits and the basis for high drug pricing.

Not all insurance companies offer policies that cover patients for high costs they may face for emergency medical treatment. In that case, poor patients have to pay for themselves.

It’s sometimes the shrewd tactics of Big Pharma when they come up with an innovative drug foreseeing the diseased population. When a potential drug becomes a ‘marketable product’, patients are viewed as ‘creamy customers’ and market data is all chiseled and summed up to show ‘profitable forecasts’, then it should be understood that greedy Big Pharma aims for sizeable profits.

Why some medicines are unfairly expensive? If no complaints are made and no investigation done, then truly nothing happens. Without sincere intention to serve patients with useful drugs at affordable costs, Big Pharma looks on for spinning viable marketing campaigns, promotional advertising, showy seminars and likeable speeches that can boost sales turnover and generate more earnings. Ah, what about the worth of human life?

Imagine the luck of some pills that are to be taken by patients life-long. That means there’s no discontinuation of prescriptions and poor patients become addicted to pills for the rest of their lives. At the end, drug manufacturers keep churning profits.

It’s all a tricky game. If Big Pharma owns exclusive patents for novel therapies and finds no competition, then diseases become opportunities for reaping enormous profits.

In some countries, pharma companies, with gross gimmicks and power play, enjoy carte blanche in tagging medicines at high prices. With few blockbuster drugs, little companies, in a span of few years, have become giants in the global pharma industry. Indeed, innovation deserves attention, accolades and rewards. But, it doesn’t mean that any profit-seeking pharma company manipulates drug pricing or devises some plot or lobbying efforts to skyrocket drug prices.

Perhaps, drug manufacturers have to take numerous factors into consideration and adopt methodical change to create a logical pricing strategy so to avoid regulatory pressures while making useful or life-saving medicines affordable to patients.

No one wants to live with diseases, but when there’s cure, a patient’s hope is to avail treatment and live a normal life.

But, if scheming Big Pharma becomes corrupt, dishonest and greedy, then ultimately patients experience great sense of disappointment and affliction. Ah, who’s going to question Big Pharma for crimes against humanity?

Image source: Glasbergen.com – Copyright 2003 by Randy Glasbergen