Essay On Pharmaceutical Industry

The truth is the medical community holds the patient hostage for profits off of the remedies procured from people at no cost to them. Scientist play the game of supply and demand with a vengeance. When children are ill, mothers are dying there is no dollar amount that can be equated with the preservation of life. Scientist, researchers and pharmaceutical companies know this and they attach exuberant prices to the remedies, treatments and cures. When the science community found a way to control HIV/ AIDS, very few people were able to get treatment because it was very expensive.

Relevant Facts: Nurofen, the pain-relief medication is made by Reckitt Benckiser Australia, a multinational company. The company was found misleading customers for all its specific range that contained the same active ingredient ibuprofen lysine 342mg and was seen to have same effect. The product was advertised the products as been targeting back pain, period pain and tension headaches. The Company was fined $1.7m for misleading customers on range of ‘specific pain’ relief contravening Australian Consumer Law has been brought forward by ACCC. The ACCC had asked federal court to impose $6 million fine.

Many believe that the FDA has financial reasons for allowing a drug to be on the market. In 2006, a study found that” in 22% of advisory board meetings, more than half the members had direct financial in the companies whose medial products they evaluated or their rivals”. The FDA’s advisory boards should not be able to vote on companies that they have financial ties to. The FDA says they do the best they can to create an unbiased board, but it is difficult to find “top medical experts with no ties” to pharmaceutical companies. Since a number of people have complained about this, Congress decided to make the FDA cut twenty-five percent of the advisory board that has financial ties with the pharmaceutical company being evaluated over the next five years.

Right now in the United States of America, there is a monopoly that exists that involves epinephrine auto-injectors. EpiPen is the United States only supplier of these auto-injectors because other brands have suffered setbacks and failures, patent protection laws, and because there are currently no generic versions of EpiPen in the United States (Johnson). This monopoly was not a problem until Mylan bought Meda AB in 2007 (Paton). “Since Mylan bought the rights to EpiPen in 2007, it has raised the price on 15 separate occasions, bringing the current list price to $608 for a two-pack up from about $50 a pen in 2007” (Mole). This has been a price increase of more than 500%, and this shows that Mylan has been using the monopoly to its advantage.

A free market system only hurts the economy, which is why the U.S is a mixed market economy. A mixed market economy is beneficial to consumers due to the fact there is government regulatory oversight of goods, and there is competition for goods. This type of economy means that companies cannot become monopolies and control prices of certain goods. However, this is not the case for pharmaceutical industries because there is little to none government intervention occurring. The lack of government oversight means that pharmacies that only develop specialized medicines have complete control of the price due to the fact they are the only ones able to reproduce the product.

A Call for a Single Payer Universal Health Care System As the 2016 Presidential Elections draw near, the topic of much debate is that of healthcare. Some candidates vow for universal healthcare and mandate health insurance for all, while others believe that tax credits and health savings accounts will resolve the current crisis. Consequently, the nation has been divided on which plan to support and move forward with. Some fear universal health care will diminish the quality of care and lead to long waits, while others fear that health savings accounts and tax credits won’t be enough to insure all and will do little to diminish the administrative costs of the current system. Ultimately because healthcare is a basic right that should be guaranteed

The first device is a dysphemism found in the MSNBC article. “We are the only developed nation that lets drugmakers set their own prices, maximizing profits the same way sellers of chairs, mugs, shoes, or any other manufactured goods would.” “Drugmakers” is used as a dysphemism. This choice of wording elicits a negative connotation. The use of the word “Drugs” is not as neutral as “Medicine”.

Big Pharma Name: Institution: Over the past years, various issues have faced the United States of America in the health sector in general. Some of these challenges include difficulties in healthcare insurance policies, increasing cancer cases, elevated levels of misuse of prescription drugs, rise in the consumption of illicit drugs, inter alia. These issues have led to escalation of health issues to the American citizens, and in turn, affecting the economic status as well. This research will focus on the subject matter misuse, abuse, and addiction of opioid prescription drugs.

Montero discusses how health care costs have been rising faster than wages and inflation, leaving many individuals and families struggling to pay for necessary medical care. Montero shares the statistic, “About four in ten U.S. adults say that they have delayed or gone without medical care in the last year due to costs” (Montero et.all 1). This evidence informs the readers with the true number of people that are struggling with healthcare costs and makes it much more visible in the reader's eye. The article also explores some of the reasons why healthcare costs are so high in the United States, such as the high cost of prescription drugs, administrative costs, and the lack of price transparency. In the article it states, “About a quarter of adults say that they or family members in their household have not filled a prescription, cut pills in half, or skipped doses of medicine in the last year because of the costs” (Montero et.

Why? Mainly because of very high prices of ARVs and international patents that didn’t allow the drugs to be manufactured at cheaper prices causing mass destruction. The main problems that are highlighted in the documentary are high prices of the drugs (which lead to higher deaths), Restrictions on imports, patenting of drugs (cheaper generic drugs couldn’t be manufactured) and monopoly by big pharmaceutical companies ( leading to higher prices of life saving drugs) and players at stake were Pfizer, Cipla, Private Companies and generic drugs

Every citizen in the United States has individual rights protected by the Constitution. This protection also includes businesses that have gone through the legal process to become a legal entity ; more commonly known as becoming a corporation. Many times these individual rights, protected by the Constitution, conflict with the common good and as history shows, the courts consistently side with the common good when faced with a case that pits these two against each other. Big Pharma are corporations exercising their individual rights to market, and sell their product to consumers. In the process, the common good is suffering.

Porter’s five force model. Threat of New entrants (low): Although Walgreens and CVS are the giants in the retail pharmacy industry, there is a plenty of chances to small competitors. Entry into the brick-and-mortar prescription drug business is feasible even on a small scale.

Many new companies to enter the market without burden of costly tasks such as research and development, clinical trials and manufacturing of drugs. Moreover, patent expiry is one of the reasons which is offering opportunities for lower cost generic manufacturer in terms of greater market access. Additionally, the government has increased their focus on healthcare cost cutting. It is creating pressure on the authority to allow early introduction of low-cost drugs in the

blah states “Increased competition is proven to result in lower prices, which in turn contribute to improved access to medicines”, it was the Developed Nations which benefited from the profit gained from using the resources of the developing nations. Prohibitive drug prices are often the result of strong intellectual property protection. It is therefore unsurprising that places like the United Nations, Japan, China and a few in Western Europe, have fought for stronger control and higher levels of property rights laws. These nations argue for strong global protection, as they have

Exploring Community Pharmacies and Their Role in Health Promotion A community pharmacy is vital part within the healthcare system when it comes to health promotion. Pharmacists are an excellent resource when it comes to educating patients with medication knowledge, and directing patients towards the proper procedure of taking their prescribed medication. On Saturday, January 20th, 2018, military time 1909, I visited the pharmacy section of a Shoppers Drug Mart located on Kingsway and Nanaimo in Vancouver. This paper explores how a community pharmacy can educate individuals on the medications they are taking, and the similarities and differences between a pharmacist and a nurse.