The Pharmaceutical Game

My blog series for this semester is about the current state of Pharmaceuticals and Pharma drug sale. This topic interests me because of the huge impact that medicine has on the state of the economy, politics and well being of citizens within this country. The war on drugs is constantly fixated on “Illicit drugs” and we sometimes over look the fact that the distribution of medication alone is a uphill battle.

This topic is relevant because in recent years the cost of medication has sky rocketed, while we’re constantly promised new and improved forms of health and medication affordability continually diminishes. The fact of the matter is that Pharmaceuticals is as big of marketing gain than it is to benefit general health. Why is this? Well is goes without saying that the people running these big Pharmaceutical companies are just as in it for the money as they are to advance the medical field. Probably the most hated man in the US right now Martin Shkreli, founder and chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, recently raised the unit price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Daraprim is known as a drug used to reduce toxoplasmosis and help AIDS and cancer patients with inefficient immune systems. The reason people such as Martin Shkreli can operate the way that they do is because of patents. These patents gives the owners rights to the certain make of the medication over the span of several years. An example of this is would be Tylenol, Tylenol's generic form is acetaminophen and within the last 10 years more and more off companies have been allowed to use and make the drug formula for themselves. This spike in productivity and competition makes the generic form a lot cheaper and thus labeling Tylenol as a brand and not a generic medication. These patents are the sole reason that producers of these drugs can place such high prices, and whether the drug is new or old it does not matter in the slightest.

This topic is relevant not only because the need for medicine is always vastly growing but how the industries that make them are expanding just as immensely. The growth of these companies not only spread throughout the medical field but also have their hands in the political game as well. In this years current election medicine has been a hot topic, with presidential candidates like Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, whom’s proposals are to contain the varying drug prices by either lowering health care or increased regulations for distributing and manufacturing drugs. Hilary Clinton proposal's however seem to favor that of big Pharma companies in the fact that she wants to push regulation on certain drugs in order for a quicker release of the product. The amount of power that pharmaceutical companies have gain within recent years is ridiculous. This poses controversy as there has to be some system in place in order to regulate how these companies can conduct themselves. Organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or Nation Institution of Health (NIH) constantly mediate the certain patents and medical testing required to release a drug to the public domain. Although these organization are put in place to protect the public from any drastic harm they cannot completely regulate how companies choose to price or advertise their products.

There’s a lot of controversy revolving around the fact that manufacturing medications in the United States are the reason that prices of drug are high. Countries such as China and India, where resources are cheaper and more abundant, are trying to market their way into the US drug scene. This could prove to be both essential or detrimental to our current state as the past trials for outsourcing such medications have failed to meet FDA regulations. However the financial gain of purchasing cheaper generic medications will indefinitely reduce the price of both Brand and generic drugs. Hopefully in turn this could shift some of the focus off of just medicine and steer towards higher medical advancements.

In this current economy where we’re still recuperating from a recent recession and still suffering from a large inflation rate. I believe that many people in this country are still trying to find a foot hold whether it be a job, house, car, or etc. That their health and well being should be the last of their worries. This is a topic worth discussing because even with the recent enactment of Obama care, health care still seems to be out of reach for some. Although there are still numerous people who cannot afford health care we must strive to see it that everyone is allowed to affordable medication at the very least.