How pharma (big and small) is preying on those unlucky enough to be sick

[OnlinePoker]

"How's this for a business plan? Buy an old drug for a rare condition. Raise its price by 20 times. Prepare to reap the sales. What could be wrong with that?

Plenty, as Derek Lowe points out at In the Pipeline. The drug in question is Thiola (tiopronin), used to treat a rare disease that causes painful-and-unusual kidney stones. Till recently, it was marketed by Texas-based Mission Pharmacal at $1.50 per pill.

Retrophin snapped up the rights to that drug earlier this year, and now it's hiking the price to $30 per. And as Lowe reports, patients take "several" pills per day. It doesn't take a hand calculator to determine that the monthly cost quickly mounts to $1,800, at two daily doses, and $2,700 at three. Up from a whopping $135 cost pre-increase, and that's at the three-pill level."

http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/huge-price-hike-sales-strategy-taken-extremes-retrophin/2014-09-11

This is a despicable practice and should be illegal.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. That's one thing I've noticed over the years...

Many pills in the 70's/80's would treat you within a semi-defined amount of time. Now, almost EVERY pill is a "maintenance" drug you're forced to take indefinitely. Reasonably sure this is by design.

[BrotherIvan]

7. Or "preventative" forever drugs

Such as statins which are less than useless but doctors keep prescribing them.

[Louisiana1976]

2. Single payer would probably solve that problem. Aren't pills cheaper in Canada than they are in

the US?

[OnlinePoker]

3. They are, but can still be expensive

I know my in-laws are paying about $400 per month for their various medications. I'm sure that's much cheaper than the U.S. We can also claim the costs as expenses on our taxes, which I'm not sure is allowed in the U.S.

[Travis_0004]

5. in the US you can deduct everything over 10℅ of adjusted gross income

It was 7.5℅ of AGI up until 2013 but it was raised to 10℅. I think it was stupid to take away a deduction from the sick and poor but I guess it's too late to debate that now.

You can also open an FSA or HSA and avoid taxes as well.

[Skittles]

4. it's like the entire country is becoming Green Acre's Mr. Haney

it's DISGUSTING

[Thinkingabout]

6. The US pays higger prices for drugs because big pharma buys Congressional members.