watching a show about how Novartis sell thier successful anti cancer pill Glivec to people for around 19 dollars a pill, they have to take about 8 a day and so people can't afford this even though this is shown to work...this is even to people that were the ones who trialled the drugs in the first place...it is depressing and sad...apparently they made half a billion dollars last year...that is half a billion off people who are spending thier every last cent to help fight a disease that is treatable...and the companiesin India say they can sell the drug for about 80 cents to one dollar...due to the licences there being only patents on the process, not the actual drug...therefore if you can produce the active ingredient through a different process then you can sell it, apparently a lt of the active ingredients in our drugs here are manufactured in India. The rules change next year so watch the drug prices increase... *bangs head against wall*
pfizer suck too...diflucan27 dollars a tablet...to treat thrush... when you have to take one a day and only earn 19 dollars a week to support a whole family.. sheeet, this poor sweet boy, he is from Honduras...the filmmakers just bought him the drugs and are off to Guatemala to get some anti retroviral drugs... this show is so depressing
Hang on a second! This company has spent billions of dollars researching cancer drugs, and THEY FOUND ONE THAT SEEMS TO HELP! How can you fault the drug company. I APPLAUD Novartis! If it weren't for there billion dollar investment, we wouldn't have this amazing drug! The price is high to compensate for the initial investment, and to cover the cost for continued research and development. It doesn't cost anywhere near $19 to produce a pill, but it ABSOLUTELY does to invent one! Think of the work involved in clinical drug trials, and how many compounds did they research before they discovered ONE that works! If we don't allow companies to be profitable, or if we allow generic companies to manufacture drugs as soon as they are developed, NO NEW DRUGS WILL BE DISCOVERED! Medicine has increased both lifespan and quality of life astronomically over the past 100 years. You don't really want that to stop now, do you?
The guys in Suth Korea who are protesting the price and asking for generic drugs were originally part of the tests which allowed them to get approval for the drug in the first place, then when the drug was approved they had to start paying for it, the South Korean government looked at opening up the drugs market however the US government applied trade pressure directly on the South Korea and profit over life won out...profit for whom...not those who die that is for sure. Of course they had volunteered for the trials as they were dying, nothng else worked and suddenly something works...then it is priced out of reach...so what should they do, just die because they are not rich enough to afford the drugs? Or should we accept that if the drug actually works...in that it saves lives then maybe there is a bit more of an ethical take on it than a "recouping of costs take". It is complicated I admit but I do think that it is possible to find a solution to the fact that medicines are priced too high for a lot of people who actually need them. The doco was great as it put these arguments together far more succintly than I do...but it is an interesting ethical dillemmas for these companies...
The point was also made in the doco that these drugs are quite often just variations of already existing ones...or even existing ones which they have rediscovered an application for....this was stated as being the case more often than not, wether that is true I am not sure but it certainly would reduce the development costs and increase the profit margins...in fact the reason this happened they saids was that it was a simple way to boost profits involving minimal outlay. anyhow I do believe that if the drugs sold in the West suddenly become more expensive because the active ingredients bought from countries that produce them suddenly have to produce them under licence then maybe we might start to take the matter a bit more seriously rather than regarding it as a problem that is "on the other side of the world". Seems to me that it is onkly when it affects our society directly that we actually start to give a shit.
I would like to see the documentary. It is indeed a very complex problem. Do you know the name of the documentary?
not of the top of my head sorry as I don't have a tv guide for the week, however I will endeavour to find out...
hey I'm not bad...not as fast as Google but not bad!!! anyhow I found this on the tv stations website 10:00 pmHOT DOCS - DYING FOR DRUGS A documentary alleging unethical practices by Western drug companies. This investigative documentary argues that Western drug companies are preventing Third World countries from accessing basic medicines through pricing, patenting and trade pressure. The program claims that these companies are the most profitable businesses in the world yet operate on a cut-throat basis. How far will they go to bring a new drug onto the market, and how willing are they to put profit before people? And once a drug is on the market, who decides the price? Dying for Drugs investigates the effects of testing and marketing policies on the sick children of the Third World whose lives depend on the supply of essential medicines. (From the UK, in English) PG CC
they shouldnt charge that much money for that sh$t. We give them money for cancer research. We have cancer walks. The Dr.s or scientist who made the pill get lots of cash for what they do. Thats bull shit, they just want to make more money.
