I am afraid that making it legal to import drugs from Canada,

[Veggie Meathead]

Will open the floodgates for cheap drugs from around the globe and spell the death of a very healthy American industry that provides very highly paid jobs for Americans.Canadian drugs may be cheaper than American made drugs but it is drugs from India or China that I will be worried about.Already many Indian pharmaceutical companies
are making a strong bid to sell drugs at a fraction of the cost of American drugs and with their booming biotechnology industry,they are getting a foothold in the emerging genetic engineering field.A large market like the American market will literally be handing them a license to kill the American industry.What happened to the steel,auto and the IT jobs is about to be repeated in the drugs and pharmaceuticals business.

The ultimate insult would be if McDonald's was bought up by an Indian company.Don't say you were not warned.

[REP]

1. I'll Worry About That

when my mother doesn't have to worry about whether or not she can afford to take her prescription medicine.

Or when my monthly prescription bill is less than a month's rent in Silicon Valley.

Don't shed too many tears over the American pharmaceutical companies; those drugs being imported from Canada were made by American companies and sold to Canada's medical system for lower prices than we are gouged for here.

[Veggie Meathead]

10. I agree that our seniors need help with their prescription drugs.This can

be done by putting in a plan like what Democrats have suggested.Bush is squandering that money on his phony wars.

We can help our seniors and help our middle class by strengthening our pharmaceutical industry.If we lose that, we might as well say goodbye to the future of our children.We have lost Computer Science jobs,auto jobs and steel jobs.It looks like biotechnology, drugs,genetic engineering, nanotechnology and other high tech professions are also going to be moved to India.Like I say, I wouldn't even be sure McDonald's will remain an American icon for long.

A Hindu "manufactures" burgers.The ultimate low point for American industry.Can happen.

[markus]

2. We don't need imports; we need price regulation

The problem is that for the highest price drugs, what we have is unregulated monopoly pricing. An unregulated monopoly is always going to run amok in setting prices.

U.S. companies are perfectly happy to sell their name brand drugs in Canada at regulated prices. They are going to have to accept the same here.

[bearfan454]

3. I spend 350 every 3 months on bp meds

ANYTHING where I can get brand name for less I will go for.

[Another Bill C.]

4. A question

What percentage of prescription drugs sold in this country are actually made here?

[TX-RAT]

29. Good question.

[FloridaPat]

5. Every country but us had a lid on the price of drugs or subsidizes

their drug industry. Because of that, we have to pay more to keep those drug company profits up. If the drug companies weren't so greedy and if the government weren't so busy making sure they made a fortune, we wouldn't have to import drugs.

There are also other high paying jobs dying. I met a lady who sold cars for 25 years. Her average income was around $80,000. Until 2 years ago. One problem was the recession. The other was the internet - people are using the internet to buy new cars. The internet could replace all those drug related jobs you were talking about. It's just not fair that everyone in the world can get drugs cheaper than we can when they're manufacturered here.

[baldguy]

6. The pharms make plenty of money in Canada.

If they didn't, they wouldn't be selling their drugs there and Canadians would be buying their drugs in the US rather than the reverse.

What gets me is that the reason drugs are cheaper in Canada is that Canada has price controls on drugs - yet NOBODY in the US is saying that price controls are what we need to reign in drug costs.

[Ganja Ninja]

7. That's a risk I'm willing to take. n/t

[SemiCharmedQuark]

8. Bull

I have 4 pills to take everyday and no health insurance. My seroquel alone is 6 dollars per pill. I believe it comes out to something like 10 dollars per day on pills if I buy them here in the U.S. Sorry, but I'm not going to go back to the bowels of depression trying to save the pharmaceutical companies that are responsible for thousands of deaths because people can't afford medications.

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. For me all it would mean is that I would get a medicine that I desperately

need, but that isn't made in the U.S. because the FDA won't give it approval, because it was not developed by Pfizer-in a nutshell.

[bearfan454]

11. Or because Pfizer wouldn't cough up the payola to the FDA.

Everybody has to get their little piece of the pie.

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. True. This medicine was developed by a French company with no

U.S. ties. Of course. So I pay 8 times the price to have it compounded in the states.

[Veggie Meathead]

13. Folks,what I am saying is that if we reorder our priorities in this

country we can give our people affordable healthcare including prescription drugs and keep our industries healthy.Bush and his Republicans are wasting our money in the billions on a war nobody can win while they go ballistic if a national health plan is even suggested.

Why is it that we can run up a deficit of half a trillion dollars in one year but cannot give our seniors or our children for that matter the health care they deserve? This is a national shame.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. True

But it is going to take a long time to do that, especially under Bush. What are we supposed to do until then? Bush does whatever is best for Bush. If that means screwing over the old, young, sick and women in the process he does it.
Meanwhile, the United States itself has established this false negative image of "socialism". The very same religious right "Christians" who pound their Bibles scream out against this shadowy figure of socialism lurking in the depths. Nevermind that the Christian ideal is a place where the rich and the poor are equal (Hey, remember that line? "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven"). Read Thomas Moore's Utopia. It's about a community where everyone shares in the work equally so they all do less, etc. etc. Anyway, here in the U.S. we seem to get caught up in this idea of "individuality" so much that we would rather be kicked in the teeth than be labled a dirty commie. After fighting 2 wars against Communism I seriously doubt that the U.S. will go for what it falsely perceives to be communism in National Healthcare.

[quaker bill]

15. Here is where I agree

If we were not spending the larger part of a trillion dollars a year on defense, a large number of things like universal healthcare and a decent public education system would be attainable.

Remember, nothing about the fact that we have spent vastly more on defense than any other country or collection of countries consistently for the last 50 years prevented 9/11. In fact, there is little evidence it even slowed them up.

There is no end to the money that could be spent on defense and very little evidence that any significant part of it makes us "safer".

[whosinpower]

17. Universal healthcare cannot be sustained

While insurance companies are involved. Take them OUT of the equation - and you will see a very different result.

[Stockholm]

16. Why in the world would you be scared of

drugs made in the US sold cheap to Canada and then imported back into the US?

The only reason these drugs are cheap is because your American drug industry is screwing you over!!

[Veggie Meathead]

19. In order to reimport these drugs, our laws will have to be rewritten so

such drug imports are allowed.If we allow that, what is to stop large pharmaceutical corporations in India from selling generic prescrption drugs here at a cost that is mindbogglingly low.Do you know that Cipro the drug that was recommended for Anthrax poisoning can be bought from an Indian company for 7 cents a pill while the same drug manufactured by Bayer here is sold for well over $3 a pill? You can go across the board on any drug.The Indian version many of which have FDA approval can be had for cents on the dollar.

[soothsayer]

18. Don't worry, they'll still make record profits

peddling their stuff

[drscm]

20. What percentage of the costs of drugs is marketing? I propose

that marketing costs have increased exponentially compared to actual R&D. Frankly, I am tired of the ED drug advertisements, or those who tell you to "ask your doctor about x" while they don't even tell you what it is for.

[el_gato]

21. It's the same multinational corporations selling the same drugs in Canada

I'm afraid you to do more research.

[leesa]

22. Disagree. The Pharmaceuticals must be knocked down in America

They aren't higher priced because of quality. They are high priced because of greed. The Fortune 500's top ten pharma companies have a combined profit that is more than the combined profit of all 490 other Fortune 500 companies. They don't like something that is cutting into their profit margin, they call the FDA to get it fixed.

Don't you think this might impact quality? How do you think Searle got Asparatame on the market? It's a dangerous drug but there were bucks to be made.

[Bridget Burke]

23. US companies already make drugs overseas.

US companies that manufacture pharmaceuticals & medical devices are especially fond of Irish workers--in the Republic & the North. The products are marketed worldwide but many are sold here.

[kittykitty]

33. You're right. Also some US drugs are manufactured in India. nt

[Veggie Meathead]

24. What this boils down to is our Administration(s) must think of our

people's needs first.Education,healthcare and environment must be the top priorities instead of imperila wars waged to satisfy the egos of big shots like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. The needs of our people are the last things on their minds.How many times have they even bothered to talk about these needs in the last three and a half years?

[MadHound]

25. Let see here, easing the pain, suffering and death of millions

Vs allowing Big Pharma to continue to make obscene profits off the misery of those same millions. Sorry friend, I'll go with price controls on Big Pharma any day.

Let's set a few things straight in regards to this issue. First, you and I and every other taxpayer in this country subsidize the vast majority of R&D done by pharmaceutical companies through taxpayer funded grants given out by the government. And yet when the represenatives of Big Pharma are questioned about why prices are so high, R&D is the first reason given for the high prices:wtf:

Second, by far the biggest amount of money spent by Big Pharma is on marketing, 31% of their budget. This is three times the amount spent on R&D. Most of this money is spent marketing new drugs, drugs that are poorly tested(thank Reagan and BushI for letting the FDA loosen the testing standards) and are generally designed to replace less profitable drugs whose patents have expired(they can now be made as generics), or drugs that have been approved for over-the-counter sales, also less profitable. Clinton's passing measures that allowed unfettered advertising really drove up the marketing costs, though marketing has always been traditionally high. This simply focused the advertising on American consumers rather than the traditional focus of marketing to doctors and pharmacists.

Third, most if not all large pharmaceutical companies are already multinational behemoths, making the drugs where it is cheapest, and shipping them to the US where they can be sold for the most profit.

Fourth, if you wish to prevent the further outsourcing of pharmaceutical industry to "risky" countries, formulate the legislation so that it only operates under the rubric of NAFTA. That way you can exclude any country outside of North America.

Big Pharma's profit margin is three to four times the average of other large multinational companies. Sorry, but this is, by definition, obscene profits.

Sorry, but your arguement is weak. Big Pharma is one of the largest recipients of corporate welfare in this nation, and yet they are playing God with peoples' lives all in the name of obscene profits. This isn't right, and it needs to be reigned in. If Canadian drugs help do this, then good for them. People should never, ever have to make the choice between needed medications or food, yet too many people have to make this decision every single day. And yet we are supposedly the kindest, most beneficial nation on the face of this earth:eyes:

Here are a couple of pieces of reading material for you to peruse:
<http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/hs/sager/pdfs/020402/Pharmaceutical%20Marketing%20and%20Research%20Spending%20APHA%2021%20Oct%2001.pdf>
<http://staff.washington.edu/momus/pharm.htm>

[Veggie Meathead]

26. Thank you. I will read your linked articles. Just like everyone here

all I want is that we have our health first, good jobs and opportunities for our children.All of these are possible if we give up our imperial adventures.

[MadHound]

28. I agree with you, we need to cut back on military spending

Apparently we didn't learn a damn thing from the collapse of the Soviet Union. They tried to keep up in the Cold War arms race, and spent themselves into ruin. If we continue at this pace, we will do the same. Half of the annual federal budget is spent, one way or another, on the military. That is simply too damn much, especially when you've got a significant percentage of your population who are hungry and homeless. With the standard of living in this country, there should be nobody who has to go without the basics of life, food, shelter, healthcare, etc. And yet. . .

Yes, if we cut back on military spending, we could afford to have universal health care. In fact, we could probably do it without cutting the military, especially if we removed the middleman insurance companies and HMOs. But those entities line the pockets of our politicians, and are thus considered sacred.

[Hunter_1253]

27. Don't fall for the crap

American drug and pharmaceutical companies like to pretend their industry will crumble, but in reality they are cheating and gaining an unfair advantage as we debate this. Most companies shoot for a 10 to 15% ROI (Return on Investment) for their company. The pharma people like to make around 20-30%. So, they price gouge, play patenting tricks to extend their patents beyond what's considered fare, and invest millions into politicians to protect their interests. If they would accept the fact that they don't deserve the privilege of earning 2x the profits as other industries, and stop skewing politics into allowing them to have this advantage while other industries do compete in an open international market, then drug prices in the US will be even with that of Canada and other nations.

[rman]

30. US made drugs are cheaper in Canada

Many so-called Canadian drugs are produced in the US, then exported to Canada. These drugs are more expensive in the US then they are in Canada. Odd isn't it. It's part of NAFTA iirc, and supposedly it's good for the economy.

Your example of McDonalds goes to show that many large US corporations are in effect no longer US corporations. They may have been founded in the US once upon a time, but they have become transnational corporations, in many cases more powerfull then nations and all they care about is their own bottom line.

www.thecorporation.com

[MsConduct]

32. It's the same thing in Mexico

They sell American manufactured drugs there much cheaper than they are sold here.

[Terran]

31. The pharmaceutical industry is "very healthy"

because it is "very greedy". Maybe they need to receive a scare like the one you describe.

[calimary]

34. It's also the wet blanket THIS backward-thinking regime, and all its

fervent Bible-thumping true-believers who want evolution out of school and only creation "science" taught to our kids that's going to be the REAL death of our pharmaceutical industry. The industry itself is not helping by its price-gouging. But the sad fact is that science has been so horribly demonized, deemphasized, and dismissed in our society (think of all the "junk science" derisions you've heard in the last 10 - remember the OJ case?). If we have to leave stem cells alone here, I guarantee you some other country that doesn't have the Bible Belt tying a tourniquet around its arms and legs WILL proceed with that research, AND much more. And THAT country WILL leap ahead. And the brain trust we have here, scientifically, will evacuate accordingly to seek friendlier, more supportive territory. Then when all the Bible Belters see more jobs going overseas, and more of our brainpower following it, and seeing our nation sliding toward third-world status, they'll just go drown their sorrows at the monster truck rallies before packing off to their low-paying, low-satisfaction jobs at McDonalds. And when they do that, I hope they'll be SO "GAWD Bless America" proud. They will have effectively KILLED us as a world power. But HEY! Praise the LOWERD.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

35. Where's all the "free market" rhetoric?

The greedy American pharmaceutical industry overcharges for drugs and now whines that it's being undercut by foreign companies. Tough.

Just like the auto-industry that kept churning out chrome bedecked junk with the life-span of a fruit fly, and complained that efficient, well made, Japanese cars were undercutting them.

The foreign companies build better products cheaper.

I'm all for Canadian/Indian/Chinese products if they are better and cheaper.