Most people saw the News of Turing pharmaceutical company driving up the cost of an anti-toxiplasmosis medication from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. And it also became clear that the primary reason was simply profit. We need to wonder if big pharma is driving up the cost of other medications just for profit as well.
Medications are becoming increasingly unaffordable. Many of them, even generics are no longer covered by prescription coverage plans. Patients pay more out-of-pocket than ever before. But, what are they paying for when they hand over their hard-earned dollars at the pharmacy check-out counter?
Pharmaceutical companies tell us that researching and developing new medications is expensive. No doubt that this innovation is costly. However, how much of the price of the medication vs. all the advertising drug companies do to promote their products. When you are sitting watching your favorite TV shows and that DTC (direct to consumer) commercial appears, do you ever wonder who is paying to put it there? You are! Insurance companies are not cutting into their profits to educate you because they care about you. They want you to request their product to drive up their own profits. And you are the one paying for that advertising every time you purchase a prescription at the pharmacy? DO we really want the pharmaceutical companies to be the ones to “educate” us? Clearly, their conflict of interest is showing and we should seek our education elsewhere.
Many people clamor for transparency in healthcare costs. But, how many asked it from the big pharma companies. When you buy your monthly prescription for example, wouldn’t you want o know how much of it was goes towards the actual medication, how much towards the company’s marketing agenda, and how much towards profits. People asked this of doctors and our books were opened. Yet, our profits pale in comparison to big pharma and their executives.
The example of recent weeks of Turing should make us wonder how often this price gouging occurs. I far doubt this is the first time any pharmaceutical company tried to pull this off. I think it just represents one of the times they actually got caught in the action. Shouldn’t these companies be required to submit more pricing transparency like others in healthcare are required to do? Why do their financials remain a closed book while patients suffer for lack of being able to pay for their medications?
While the FDA strictly regulates which medications are allowed to come to market, there is no over-sight on how these are paid for. These companies pretty much have free reign over their charges and no one is over-seeing their pricing schemes. There is no transparency here and costs of medications have run amok. We need transparency and we need over-sight of these pricing strategies to avoid price-gauging and monopolizing the treatment of certain disease.
Patients are being squeezed paying their insurance premiums and deductibles. I have had a few end up in the ER for being unable to afford their asthma inhalers. In the time of sky-rocketing costs of healthcare, everyone needs to step up and do their part. And Big Pharma should not be immune to this.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2015 Linda Girgis, MD, FAAFP
