Millions of Americans struggle on a daily basis to afford medicine in the United States which is the highest in the world. Many seek affordable drugs by driving to Canada or seeking medicine (as well as medical care) in India. Yet, one of the first things that President Obama did in the new health care law was to cave to a demand by the powerful pharmaceutical lobby to drop provisions guaranteeing cheaper medicine. The lobby then got Congress to block two measures to guarantee affordable medicine. With billions at stake, Congress and the White House again yielded to the demands of this industry, which is sapping the life savings away of millions of families. Given this history, many are concerned about a meeting planned between Obama and the Prime Minister of India. Public interest groups object that Obama is threatening retaliation against India in the hopes of blocking one of the major alternatives for families in acquiring affordable medicine. Congress has also again responded to industry demands for pressure in India to change its laws and, as a result, raise the cost of medicine. Doctors Without Borders, a highly respected medical group, has denounced the effort of the Obama Administration as threatening basic health care for its own citizens and those around the world.
Obama will meet with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh this week at the White House to demand a change to its intellectual property laws. In addition to a long record of yielding to the demands of the pharmaceutical industry, Obama has also yielded to copyright and trademark hawks who has secured ever increasing criminal and civil penalties in the field. Here, the industry wants to cut off the supply of affordable medicine coming out of India due to its large generic drug industry. The industry is alarmed by the fact that India’s market is forcing the cost of drugs down for HIV, TB, and cancer by more than 90 percent.
Critics charge that Obama is basically reading from a script written by Pfizer and the industry in threatening retaliation if India does not change its intellectual property laws to limit the availability of generic drugs. There is no question that India’s legal system needs reform and intellectual property rules could be tightened. However, Doctors Without Borders insists that this is a raw effort to shutdown a country offering millions of people affordable medicine. If successful, the impact on the sick could be breathtaking if not life taking. Most AIDS drugs are generic and India supplies a huge amount of the HIV medicines.
The problem is that Indian courts have already supported the claims of Indian companies to produce such generics. For example, Novartis tried for seven years to block a low-cost generic salt form of the cancer drug imatinib, marketed as Gleevec. The Indian Supreme Court ruled that the company had every right to produce the drug and that the company, and by extension the U.S., was trying to impose effective monopoly pricing on consumers.
Likewise, a case involving Bayer shows how such inflated pricing works. Bayer lost an effort to block an Indian drug that slashed the cost of a kidney cancer drug by 97 percent. That’s right, 97 percent. Bayer wants to sell it as a cost of $4,500 per month.
Obama has increased the government paying for such drugs for the poorest Americans, but that healthcare deal still allowed drug companies to pull in windfall profits at public expense. Moreover, for middle income families, such costs (or the resulting higher insurance costs) have sapped away income at a time of diminishing wealth. The companies have a valid argument that some protection is needed to allow them to recoup billions in research to develop such amazing drugs. Intellectual property law encourage innovation by guaranteeing such profits that in turn encourage the investment in new research. However, with one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington (populated by former members and staff members who helped draft earlier laws), the drug industry has imposed obscene (and at times ruinous) costs on families who struggle to pay for life-sustaining medicine.
Doctors Without Borders is leading a campaign opposing Obama’s efforts to cut off the largest market for affordable drugs — a move that would leave families captive to the pricing set by these companies.
Gene:
I was able to prove via scientific methodology that a monkey could do a better job as a department head than the person currently occupying the office.
I ranked what the department head did under three ranks: 10 points if he did something right; zero points if he did nothing at all; and -10 points if he failed.
THe incumbent human did the wrong action 70% of the time, about 20% or so did it right and the rest he did nothing.
The incumbent human was over 100 points in the negative. The theoretical monkey would do nothing at all but would receive 10 points for being a warm body in the office. So because the monkey’s strategy was to do nothing, and not goof up as much as the incumbent, he won the contest.
The conclusion of the study was it was counterproductive to have the incumbent in office where there was so much strife and bad decision making and bitter politics that it was actually better to have the monkey as a figurehead that sat around chomping bananas and divide the real work among the subordinates who collectively could do the job right.
In othewords, yes, a monkey can do a better job sometimes.
Gene,
Big Pharma learned their tricks from the oil industry.
Some of my best friends are monkeys. They are very serious, studious, calm and intelligent unless there is fruit to distract them, but they do sometimes hurl feces. The main difference between them and most humans is that many humans don’t eat nearly enough fruit and go straight to the feces hurling.
The US consumer is being screwed by the Pharma lobby who insist on maximizing profits as quickly as possible and passing off R&D costs to consumers in the US instead of making their ROI over time with volume. The Pharma lobby does this by manipulating an already broken set of IP and copyright laws and making sure that no group in the states can force them to negotiate their prices to reasonable levels. In any other instance, people would be screaming about price fixing, but the Pharam propaganda instead makes it appear that forcing them to be honest dealers instead of extortionists is somehow bad for the patient – which is utter nonsense. It’s bad for their quarterlies and end of year P/E statements and dividends.
You’ll have a hard time finding any sympathy for drug companies here. Most of our readers have a far more nuanced understanding of how that particular industry works than the average bear. If there was any justice, the DOJ would be up Big Pharma a$$ over price fixing and anti-competitive business practices. But then again, if there was any justice, half of D.C. would behind bars for bribery and RICO violations not to mention the current and previous Executive Branch members who would be on trial for treason and war crimes.
The US consumer who uses brand name pharmaceuticals effectively is subsidizing that very same drug that is sold for half the price in Canada, the UK, European Union. Just as we effectively subsidize their socialized medicine by providing for their and the world’s defense – if European countries were to spend the same amount of GDP as we do on military defense they would be unable to have their socialized medicine. Of course, then they would be able to contribute more in policing the world and the entire bill wouldn’t rest with the US.
Tatiana,
“Always he is poking and prying, tampering and meddling…
like a monkey.”
Who is “he”?
And how do you know that monkeys poke, pry, tamper, and meddle?
“And how do you know that monkeys poke, pry, tamper, and meddle?”
Well… um,,, J. Fred Muggs?
And, pray tell, exactly how did you piece that together, pdm?
None of the original columns here cited linked to refer to Dan or Dan’s World. The one external reference is indeed to Doctors Without Borders. So please. Enlighten us as to your evidence and reasoning behind a seemingly baseless accusation.
pdm,
Exactly so — you are pathetic.
Why should JT spoon feed you, or are you choking?
Always he is poking and prying, tampering and meddling…
like a monkey.
Mea Culpa, everyone! Just figured out he did list his peerless souce….why it’s DAN. You all know Dan, don’t you? That’s Dan, the Libertarian. Dan, of Dan’s World. Everybody straight now?
Pathetic.
What’s happened? Turley always listed sources at the end of his blogs. No more. Since I’m the one who often complained about less than stellar sources, do I owe you all an “apology”?
Speaking of sources, Professor…..Can you give us a source for your headline, “Obama ….Or Else”?
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh: Hello President Obama.
President Obama: Talk to the drone.
Lottakatz,
“Certain things just enrage me . . .”
Yeah, I know. I’m in the same boat, which is why I choose humor — or more likely no comment at all — in speaking to the societal issues this blog addresses though there are exceptions.
One can argue from many perspectives but if basic definitions of words and societal conventions of syntax are to be questioned then there is not much to speak about. I can make pudding all by myself.
GBK, mea culpa. Certain things just enrage me and while that rage is just bubbling around, coming up from the depths of my subconscious, the pre-conscious where it all gets massaged and put into socially acceptable and grammatical form before one just puts it out there, well, it just gets overloaded and things get through. I could tell you what I was thinking when I started posting about big pharma and insurance companies letting people die, or shortening their lives for coin and how revolution, ’68 and the virtue of direct action becomes appropriate but I won’t, not with NSA listening 🙂 You don’t miss much.
Lottakatz,
“GBK: ‘Insurgence companies’, LOL, yeah, fat fingers today. Your good humor is always a boon to the blawg.”
Nah, it wasn’t fat fingers.
It was a unencumbered connection from your thoughts to your typing fingers, if only for a moment.
I love the phrase you just coined, regardless of my humorous contributions.
GBK: “Insurgence companies”, LOL, yeah, fat fingers today. Your good humor is always a boon to the blawg.
*
Pete Moss, you’re just preaching to this choir member when you start talking about nationalized energy. Agree.
The FDA has to regulate what goes into drugs or they’d be selling us cyanide in a floor-scrapings filled capsule. Regulatory agencies are there to protect us FROM them, just like the food/meat processors etc.
Gingerbaker,
Keep up the industry line. This is a law blog with people who know about parsing words and phrases. The comment above addressed to Randyjet is disingenuous. Yes, the FDA regulates content of medications and supervises clinical trials. What the FDA does not do is tell big pharma how much or how little to charge. That is why patients in the US pay vastly more for drugs than across the borders in almost any direction.
Think I am blowing smoke? Go to any online pharmacy price list. Compare prices in the US with almost anywhere else. We are talking name brands that have not yet been released in generic. Name brands.
I am in favor of all drugs being generic. Likewise, all drilling for oil and gas on government lands to be done by government for the people and by the people. No more leases to oil companies to make a profit off of me off of my oil and gas. No more patents on anything. Drug companies be damned.
Pete The original American inventor, Ben Franklin was opposed to having a patent office. He gave away his inventions for all to produce. Tom Paine let others publish his works without royalties. That is the spirit of our founders!
OSW:
“Nice to hear from what appears to be an industry spokesperson.
In point of fact, the legislation expressly forbids price negotiation for best price…. “
Which is not the same thing as:
““Pharmaceuticals don’t have to compete in the marketplace, but can charge whatever they damn well please.””