SCAM

SM

  The Society for Consumer Advocates and Mavens

News You Can Use!

HIGH COST PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

U.S. drug company lobbyists claim that pharmaceutical companies need to charge high prices for drugs to consumers to be able to pay for the research and development of new products. However, too often these companies may be spending more on marketing and administrative costs than on research and development!

Critics charge, of the 8 major pharmaceutical companies investigated, most all of them tend to spend twice as much on administration salaries and advertising costs as they do on the research and development of new drugs! In fact, a CEO of just one of these major drug-makers can earn 30 million dollars a year and more if you include bonus pay incentives based on company profitability, while senior citizens on a fixed income may pay $500 to $1000 a month for their prescription drugs!

Also, to date, the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable industry in America, averaging around 18% growth yearly! By contrast, in Europe, they have laws limiting drug costs to consumers which forces pharmaceutical companies there to charge consumers less and make less profit and the companies in Europe have a good track record for the continuation of successful research and development of new drugs.

Moreover, U.S. consumers should possibly be allowed to pool their buying power and import FDA approved, U.S. manufactured drugs from countries overseas where U.S. manufactured drugs are consistently sold cheaper than they are to consumers at home in the USA!

Senior and lower income citizens are even crossing the border going into Mexico and Canada to get drugs they cannot afford to buy in the U.S. because, reportedly, the exact same drugs are available outside the U.S. for up to 50% to 75% savings! Why? Because other countries governments buy in bulk for its senior and lower income citizens and pass the savings on to them. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry lobby, on the other hand, spends millions of dollars trying to convince Congress and voters that by limiting their already enormous profits, the industry will not be able to create as many new drugs in research and development.

The question is, if the exact same drugs are cheaper outside the U.S. then why cannot they be as cheap inside the U.S.? Some Congressional legislators claim that U.S. citizens are being price gouged simply because the pharmaceutical industry, to date, can get away with it!

SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCES: CONSUMER REPORTS MAGAZINE OCTOBER 1999 CBS TV 60 MINUTES 7/1/01 NBC TV NEWS 7/10/01

Back