Don't blame the free market for drug prices out of control -- blame corruption

Drugs, prices, free market

It's no secret that prescription drug prices in the U.S. are out of control. Americans pay far more for their drugs than people in any other industrialized nation. This excess needs correction before it collapses the American healthcare system.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - American consumers pay at least twice as much or more for prescription drugs than most people around the world pay. Recently, drug companies and brokers have dramatically raised the price on medications, extracting tremendous profits from insurance companies and desperate consumers.

While some people blame the free market for the problem, it is actually a distortion of that market that is the issue. Competition is stifled and negotiating power is forfeited by major providers, such as Medicare. Without competition or negotiating prices, drug companies can sell their medications for whatever price they like.

Many consumers feel they are being held hostage by drug companies and middlemen, unable to afford their medications and unable to go without.

Greed is rampant and charity is scarce.

Drug manufacturers say they need to set high prices to recover R & D costs. Most people understand the revolutionary new drugs are expensive for this reason. This expense can last for 20 years until the drug's patent expires and generics can be made to compete.

Until this time, drugs can cost astounding figures. Even after generics enter the market, prices can stay high.

This phenomenon does not exist overseas. Many insurers and government run programs simply say no to expensive medications. This forces many drug companies to lower their price a or go without sales. IN the United States however there is a sense that the patient-doctor relationship is sacred, so the government will not interfere. If a doctor prescribes a medication, the patient usually gets it, but for cost.

A major contributor to costs are the middlemen who broker the drugs to pharmacies and doctors. These middlemen are beholden to shareholders, so they face pressure to increase profits. However, some of these middlemen also take gross advantage of the system.

Last year, Martin Shkreli gained the rights to sell an anti-parasitic drug and raised the price by over 5,550 percent. Mylan CEO saw her compensation rise from $2.5 million annual salary to $19 million after the company raised the price of EpiPens over 461 percent. This follows several years of steady price increases.

The company is the sole supplier of EpiPens. They also used their lobbying influence in 2010 to get the FDA to recommend selling two pens in one package, and in having the pens prescribed to people who were "at risk" and not merely those with actual, known allergies.

There are a lot of sick people in the country and a few very rich executives. Skepticism and mistrust in the pharmaceutical industry is growing. More people want to drop out of a system they believe has an incentive to prolong illness rather than cure it.

The free market and profit are good things. They inspire us to work, to provide value to others, and to compete. But when that market is corrupted, excesses and suffering result. Either the problems needs to be corrected quickly, or people will begin to blame capitalism for the problem and impose a solution that provides neither value nor competition.

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