Natwerk Designs

Why do people complain about pharmaceutical companies making a profit off of medications they come up with?

If you come up with a new idea for a drug and can get it on the market and it works, why should you not be allowed to charge anything you want for it for as long as you want to? Why does there have to be a patent on it? If these companies have the money for innovation and research - to come up with these drugs in the first place, who is anyone to dictate what they can charge?

Public Comments

1. I didnt read what you said but I complain because maybe they charge far more for americans than they do for the rest of the world?
2. Make it as expensive as you want, who cares. More expensive means less sales
3. They overprice It doesn't benefit anyone/anything other than the pharmaceutical company.
4. Well, i suppose people complain because, for the first ten years of its existence, only one company can make the drug, and in many instances (such is the case with insulin) many people need these drugs to survive, or merely have a decent standard of living, and some find it unfair on some moral ground, that many (particularly the elderly) are forced to choose between things like food and a warm house, or medications that are drastically marked up in price.
5. they have to pay doctors heavy fees
6. Its more of an ethical reason. The high expense causes decreased access to people who might need it. Also most of the drugs have horrible side effects sometimes worse then the original problem. Not to mention these companies are patenting your individual genes now. Yes, genes that are natural in occurrence. The drug companies can justify the patent though on the basis that they spend millions of dollars developing the drugs and would end up being at a loss if generics were readily available.
7. I don't know how people can say that they are over priced. How much is not being sick worth to you? Having the patent on it though is just to protect the pharmaceutical company. Obama has just convinced everybody that Profit is a four letter word and that all big businesses are evil.
8. They can charge anything they want. They have seven years to make as much money as they can. After that, companies can make the generic form. And, they make quite a bit of money along the way (that's exactly why they're in the business). Fact is (and by fact, I mean "fact") the components can be very cheap. The process is even cheaper. The money they spend on innovation and research is 100% tax deductible (and therefore a government subsidy). They (the companies) are not complaining. Without government regulation nothing would prevent another company from copying their product. Hmmmm, should we eliminate that regulation? It's a process that's worked for a very long time and pharmaceutical companies are some of the biggest and most profitable companies in the world...and they aren't complaining! Sorry to correctly and factually answer your question without the response you wanted but I KNOW exactly how it works since I'm in the business.
9. Can you define the lines of ethics? Say a company found a cure for a certain disease such as cancer or aids, they could patent the cure and still produce drugs to treat the problem and not cure it. Basically like vendor lock-in. Speaking of vendor, they are companies out for profit. By the way as another user stated, Yes they are patenting genes in many organisms. Companies however do have overheard such as lawsuits and technology they must pay for. Where the line is drawn on what is ethical to charge or copyright is a totally different question.
10. The average cost to bring a new drug to market is over 1 Billion USD. Pharmaceutical companies are a business, they exist to make a profit. The reason that Pharmas will take the risk and spend $1B is the possibility of making a profit and getting a decent ROI on their development costs Simply put, the US market subsidizes the ROW. Someone has to pay and as in many cases that is the US. The alternative is that we would see less risk and hence fewer new drugs or devices developed.
11. i don't ,i wish they were cheaper,wish they never spent time and money on drugs that never pan out but that is only way to find drugs,also wish they didn't have all the red tape and lawsuits that drive up cost here in the us,control the lawyers and you might lower cost,but no way to lower cost on development
12. A K hit the nail on the head. While I think it's fine for a pharmaceutical company to make money on what they develop, why should people in the US bear the brunt of the costs? There are drugs down here that can cost upwards of $100.00 for a 30 day, or less, supply. In many cases, those same drugs are available in Canada for around 10% of that price. That may be fair if you're talking about a third world country, but Canada and many Western European countries don't meet that description and many of them earn more money than US citizens.
13. It's despicable to see sick people as a potential for massive profit. One of the most despicable facts about the pharmaceutical industry is the FACT that the majority of research that goes into making the drugs is funded by the Federal government (i.e., the taxpayers). If you don't believe me, go on PubMed and look at the funding sources of the vast majority of the research on there. Read the FDA NDA forms and patent applications of new drugs for the companies involved in discovering, designing, testing, and improving these drugs. The vast majority of these companies are funded through public grants.
14. There is no problem with a drug company making a profit off of a new drug. They calculate the cost of research and development, factor in the costs of mass marketing it and then the future expense of developing other uses for it. No one can fault a company for that. There pricing and lobbying in the United States has shown a major price gouging scenario, however. The problem comes when they have one price for the United States patient, and another cost for the rest of the world. When I was sick in europe a drug cost me $5.00. When I was back in the United States it cost me $65. Then they have another price for Medicare patients and probably VA patients, too.
15. No problem with the profit. Got a problem with the commercials & the disregard the cos have when they send out drugs knowing they'll cause health problems, but figure they'll make enough profit to cover lawsuit costs.
16. Big Pharma has never had ethics, they produce more bad things than good for the people, like GM food, Aspartame,etc, and are after forcing through 'Codex Alimentarius'. The pharma company 'Bayer' sold millions of Dollars Worth of inject-able blood-cloting medicine to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in mid-1980s even though they knew it was tainted with the Aids virus, Anthrax.
17. Why should Americans pay more for the drugs than any other country? Make the price equal across the board so that Americans don't have to foot most of the bill!