In 2016, the American viewing public was exposed to 663,000 television commercials for pharmaceuticals. That is a significant “ad spend” by Pharma, which we pay for through increased drug pricing. A new study looks at the therapeutic value of the more heavily advertised drugs. The key concept here is “market differentiation.”
Pharmaceutical Industry
Brucellosis is a bacterial infection often associated with the consumption of raw food. Apparently, another source of infection is Chinese pharmaceutical companies. Who wants a Chinese COVID vaccine?
The protection of intellectual property is vital to innovation. If anyone can just take something you created -- be it a song or a drug -- without proper compensation, there would be little reason to develop anything new. That, however, is predicated upon innovators playing fairly. In other words, they cannot seek patent protection for things that are not patentable. Yet, some pharmaceutical companies are doing just that.
The problem of high drug prices is multifaceted and complex. Referring to the pharmaceutical industry employing "crooks" might be good for some cheap applause, but it's demoralizing to the thousands of scientists who work in it. Senator Sanders should apologize.
When pharmaceutical companies jack up prices, it irritates everybody. And when people are irritated, politicians take the opportunity to do some grandstanding to win votes. Just a few days into its term, the House Oversight Committee in the new Congress has already launched an investigation into drug pricing. Is that justified? Not really.
Epic patent gaming, and pay-for-delay agreements to slow-walk introduction of cheaper generics to market, helped bring us to this point. But will a growing behemoth of 750 hospitals actually lower drug prices?
The pharmaceutical industry does not make a move without knowing what is coming down the pike, or without global projections years into the future. This latest maneuver is standard fare.
The gloves are off in a battle to control the sector. Nearly 83% of hospitals are charging over twice the cost for medicines, with a majority of mark-ups between 200 and 400%. Will any fixes in store actually help patients?
The U.S. Court of Appeals just delivered another blow to a rather-clever-but-cunning play by Allergan, the pharmaceutical giant, to game the patent system.
It's no surprise that drug traffickers are quite creative about distributing their products. Recently, the Drug Enforcement Agency and Homeland Security pounced on an operation that used Donald Duck and Winnie the Pooh objects to disguise illegal shipments.
Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs is one of the world's most influential public intellectuals. His war against global poverty is commendable, if not always congenial. His expertise is rightly sought by national and international media outlets.
It's strange, then, for someone of his knowledge, accomplishment, and reputation to repeat verifiably untrue claims. A recent exchange on Twitter reveals that, at times, Dr. Sachs has merely a casual relationship with the truth.
Jeffrey Sachs's War on the Pharmaceutical Industry
There's a camp that says innovation in drug development comes solely from academia and government labs. Another says the pharmaceutical industry invents drugs, without academic involvement. Both camps are wrong. Usually, both academia and industry contribute to drug discovery. An example is the long, grueling battle against hepatitis C.