Pharmaceutical Companies: Worse than Illegal Drug Dealers

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

You would be hard pressed to find a family in Brownsville who doesn't have more than one family member who is dependent on some sort of medication. Whether it is a product of our genetics, our environment, or a combination of the two, almost all of us are related to someone who is taking medicine to help control their cholesterol, their blood pressure, or — the big one — their blood sugar.

There is a large number of diabetics in the lower Rio Grande Valley and in Brownsville. I am one of them. When I first began injecting myself with insulin, I was doing it the old fashioned way. I had glass vials and used a hypodermic needle to jab my belly and introduce the medicine into my system. When I visited my doctor one of the last times, he now had some fancy, newfangled pen that had the medicine in it. You didn't need to use a vial of anything, just dial up the number, and stick yourself with the needle and you were good to go.

That worked until the samples I had ran out. Now it was time for my health insurance to start helping me out with the cost of the medicine. I went to my pharmacy to pick up my medicine when the pharmacist told me my insurance company had denied to pay for the life-saving medicine I needed. The pharmacist let me know if I wanted a thirty-day supply of medicine it was going to set me back over one thousand dollars. 

I had to go back to the doctor and let him know he needed to prescribe the older-style glass vials. I am back to using those again, even though every time I have to refill the prescription the company still denies me the refill the first time around. The pharmacy has to jump through some hoops in order to get an approval. I am very fortunate my pharmacy and the pharmacists there are excellent and more than accommodating. They consistently go the extra mile in making sure I have everything I need. Not that they advertise with me, but if you're looking for a pharmacy, I strongly recommend the HEB on Central Boulevard.

At least I was able to find a solution to my problem. There are those who are not as fortunate as I am. A friend of mine recently made a post on social media chronicling the issues her daughter is having in obtaining her insulin. She is also a diabetic. I don't know if her health insurance decided to stop covering her medication, or if the pharmaceutical company just decided to jack up the price of her insulin, but one vial of insulin was going to set her daughter back $670.00.

Here's the rub. The exact same medication, in the exact same dosage, in the exact same brand, sells for forty dollars in Mexican pharmacies.  

Therein lies the problem. For some reason, pharmaceutical companies have been allowed to operate unchecked and unregulated in the United States for years. They set astronomically high prices in the United States. Those same medications are offered in Mexican and Canadian pharmacies for a fraction of what they can be purchased for here.

The U.S. House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee released a study in September of 2019. In their study A Painful Pill to Swallow: U.S. vs. International Prescription Drug Prices, the very first sentence of the summary says, "Americans pay on average nearly four times more for drugs than other countries – in some cases, 67 times more for the same drug."

Let that sink in for a minute. Americans are paying anywhere between four and 67 times more for medication than people in other countries do. 

The study goes on to debunk the idea that the reason prices are higher in the United States is because the rebates for the medication are higher here. That is not the case. 

The study;s conclusion reads:

The results from this study clearly show that a new approach is needed in the U.S. to provide more equitable drug prices to consumers – one that ensures American families are not unfairly bearing the burden of much higher prices to fuel drug companies’ profits. A policy of Medicare prescription drug negotiation using international prices would help rebalance a distortion created by Medicare’s overpaying for drugs that could yield significant savings for American families. Given that one in four Americans report taking four or more medications, action in Medicare alone is not enough, as 180 million Americans with employer coverage also struggle with prescription drug bills. Efforts at lowering consumers’ costs need to be broad in scope so that all Americans are getting a fair deal in what they pay for drugs.

Experiences abroad can provide policymakers with a better understanding of their own system, but the solution to the drug pricing crisis lies within the U.S.’s domestic policy context and history. One element is certain, though: The system in place now does not work for the Americans who depend on it, and change, however challenging, is paramount.

You don't have to read through the entire study, and you don't have to be a medical professional, to realize what is happening. The easiest explanations are usually the correct ones, and the easiest explanation is this — big pharmaceutical companies pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the campaigns of members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and to presidential candidates of both major political parties.

The only politics CEO's of companies like Pfizer, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson care about are the politics of their bottom line. They don't care who is sitting in the White House or what political party has control of the House or the Senate, as long as they don't introduce, or pass, any meaningful legislation designed to curb the profits of these large pharmaceutical conglomerates. This is why these companies donate generous amounts to any and all politicians who are in a position to hurt their profits, which number in the billions.

Big Pharma also controls and directs medical research. Why would any of these companies bother coming up with cures to anything when they can make your symptoms and illnesses chronic so long as you keep buying their medicine and pumping it into your system?

Then there's the myriad of side effects these medications come with. For the life of me, I will never understand how taking a medication that is supposed to help you with your depression can give you side effects that include increased depression and suicidal thoughts. I really can't understand the logic on that one.

The only way things are going to change is if this country takes a long, hard look at how corporations and people are allowed to donate money to politicians. Without campaign finance reform there will never be any real change to the stranglehold and death-grip Big Pharma has on this country and its government.

At the end of the day, the one absolute truth is the rich get richer and the sick keep dying.


You can find the entire Ways and Means report here:

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/files/documents/U.S.%20vs.%20International%20Prescription%20Drug%20Prices_0.pdf


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Starcks, The Rabbs, and a Plantation House

Forces Beginning to Align Against LNG Projects at the Port: Clupper, Port Isabel, Et al.

Thoughts on Erasmo Castro and his Upcoming Candidacy for State Representative