The Outrageous Costs of Prescription Medications

Everyday I receive numerous calls from pharmacies in my area because a prescription for a medication I wrote was not covered by a patient’s insurance. The cost to buy it out-if-pocket is prohibitive so often there is no choice but to prescribe another medication. My second choice may not be as good as my first but the outrageous costs of prescription medications leave me no alternative.

So, where do these sky-rocketing prices arise? Pharmaceutical companies reveal that these high costs are inevitable due to research and developments costs of new medications. However, many studies show that the largest expenditures at most drug companies go towards marketing. All the direct-to-consumer advertisements we see on TV are costly and paid for out of our payments at the pharmacy. We are not only funding the production of our medications, we are also paying for those ads and helping the drug companies become more profitable.

We all watched the example of Martin Shrkeli from Turing Pharmaceuticals as he raised the price of a medication to treat toxoplasmosis over 1000%. Did the cost of making that medication suddenly become that more pricey? Or perhaps they modified the medication to make it better somehow? The answer is no to both. The price was raised simply because it could be and the extra revenue was going towards increased profits for the company.

When a medication is first developed and brought to market, it is patented. No one else can manufacture that drug. In essence, the drug company holds a monopoly over that medication. They can price it however they chose without any competition to help drive down costs or at least hold it at bay. There is no over-sight at these companies and the books are closed to scrutiny. While the rest of the medical field is called out to show more transparency, the drug companies are permitted free rein to operate away from public eyes. And the consumers are bear the burden of this opacity.

The US is a capitalist society. However, the pricing of medications is different because patients often don’t have a choice whether they should buy them or not. They may need to purchase them simply to stay alive. There is nowhere else they can buy them, unless they go overseas but then the quality of the product is not assured and this may place them in danger. What is even more dangerous is the fact that 25 million people in this country go without taking some of their prescribed medications to help reduce costs.

Executives at these companies are earning huge profits. While they should not be begrudged to receive compensation for their work and status, some of them are compensated at obscene rates. In this industry, this profitability comes at the sake of driving up healthcare costs and making it unattainable for many.

The best medicine in the world may be found in the US. Unfortunately, the outrageous costs of medications is making healthcare out of reach for the average American and making it a service for the elite. It is widening already existing disparities in the system. Unless something changes, patients stand to suffer greatly.

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