Pharmaceutical Deals Costing Consumers Billions a Year

Today Wall Street Journal's Shirley Wang reported on: Pay for Delay Deals that could save American consumers $3.5 billion a year.  Yesterday, I read an article on the possibility that the pharmaceutical industry and ad trade groups were bracing for the very real possibility that Congress would rescind the tax deduction drug companies receive on their direct-to-consumer advertising - $4.7 billion a year.
WOW!!  (I did hear from an inside source today though that this was tabled and some how mysteriously disappeared from negotiations).

NOW - if you put just those two numbers together from the pharmaceutical industry - add in a little insurance reform - could we not be able to do some Health Care Reform that wouldn't cost the American Public billions in extra taxes??? It would at least make a great start!  And hey, why not add in the  millions of dollars being spent on TV ads objecting to the health care reform – (why not put that money into helping those who need insurance coverage or medications or paying for physicians to cover clinics in rural areas or doing something that’s actually productive to make a difference?)  AMAZING the amount we would have to help those in need rather than fighting amongst each other....

This is not a democratic or republican issue – health care is a human issue and at one point or another will affect us all. 

What a concept that would be - where is the out pouring of American voices - those of patients filing bankruptcy because of our wonderful healthcare system in the U.S.? It amazes me the lobbying power that both the Pharma and Insurance industries have and the lack of voice on the part of the American Public - we make up this country - shouldn't they be looking out for OUR health and that of our families? Government employees have their health care covered - they are not voting for Us! 

Ms Wang's article:
By Shirley S. Wang

Ending settlements in which branded drug makers pay generic ones to delay entry into the market, known as “pay-for-delay” settlements, would save consumers $3.5 billion a year, plus “significant savings” for the federal government, according to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

In his speech to the Center for American Progress today, Leibowitz said that stopping such deals is an FTC priority and urged Congress to pass legislation to ban or limit such patent settlements, which the agency believes to be anticompetitive.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court declined to hear such a case involving the nearly $400 million Bayer paid to Barr and other companies to keep generic versions of its antibiotic Cipro off the market until Bayer’s patent expired.

These types of settlements can be lucrative for both parties. For instance, Pfizer will reap billions in additional revenue for settling its fight with Ranbaxy over Lipitor. The two companies agreed Ranbaxy could start selling the cholesterol drug in late 2011, rather than in 2010, which Ranbaxy was pushing for. Ranbaxy, in return, gets six-month head start of being the only generic atorvastatin on the market.

“From my perspective,” Leibowitz said, “the decision about whether to restrict pay-for-delay settlements should be simple.” He continued:

On the one hand, you have savings to American consumers of $35 billion or more over 10 years – about $12 billion of which would be savings to the federal government – and the prospect of helping to pay for health care reform as well as the ability to set a clear national standard to stop anticompetitive conduct. On the other hand, you have a permissive legal regime that allows competitors to make collusive deals on the backs of consumers

YOUR THOUGHTS? Write your elected officials and make YOUR voice heard!

Comments

[roulette system]

Meds are so over priced but they are price protected for a couple of reasons. Your insurance pays for most of it so you don't feel the sting. Two the pharma complex have politicians in their pockets. Not all of them but the right ones to pass laws in their favor. Remember getting meds from Canada was made illegal? There was a pharma rep who bought a house on Long Island for 30 million bucks. He paid for it in cash. It all boils down to this... Lobbying should be outlawed.

roulette system