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Why a Pill That's 4 Cents in Tanzania Costs Up to $400 in the U.S

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Re: Why a Pill That's 4 Cents in Tanzania Costs Up to $400 in the U.S

#61

Post by test1235 »

jonwachob91 wrote: post #49
justin66 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's unclear to me why another drug manufacturer doesn't come in and undercut the price. From the sound of things these diseases were until very recently isolated to poorer countries. Even today, with the increased number of cases, there might not be enough money to be made based on a few sick North Americans to justify tooling up to make a new drug. (Some of that is about FDA regulatory approval, but not much sinc…

>>From the sound of things these diseases were until very recently isolated to poorer countries. Even today, with the increased number of cases, there might not be enough money to be made based on a few sick North Americans to justify tooling up to make a new drug. The article also says albendazole, the drug in question, can be purchased in the UK for $2. Why can I not start a pharma company that A) imports albendazo…

GlaxoSmithKline produce Zentel[1] (manufactured in India), and they already operate in US[2].

1. https://www.unitedpharmacies-uk.md/Zentel-Albendazole-400mg-...

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlaxoSmithKline#Facilities

Re: Why a Pill That's 4 Cents in Tanzania Costs Up to $400 in the U.S

#62

Post by huherto »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #22
empath75 wrote: post #4

The answer is that our insurance and medical billing system is a complete tirefire and needs to be burned to the ground and replaced with something sane.

Typical socialist answer. Burn a working system to the ground, so everyone suffers equally. At the very least the current system allows poor countries to enjoy cheap excellent drugs, researched and paid for by the wealthy western countries.

No one is really really suggesting to burn it down. It is just an expression of how frustrated we are becoming with a system that is not working out. It is hurting us. It is hurting the country.

Re: Why a Pill That's 4 Cents in Tanzania Costs Up to $400 in the U.S

#64

Post by Retric »

notyourday wrote: post #25
jsjohnst wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are jumping to a conclusion without having enough supporting evidence. Regulation on drugs didn’t suddenly get 8,000x more expensive for drug companies in the last few years. An alternative theory, which I can’t prove any more than you can prove yours, is that due to some pharmaceutical companies realizing they were leaving serious money on the table, they tried hiking prices. Once they realized there wou…

It contradicts basic economics. If you raise prices 8000x and I will go into competition with you and raise prices 7999x i.e. do what MCI did to ATT and Vizio did to Samsung.

You don't get competition on day one, and one week of 8000x prices is worth more than 10 years of 1x prices. However, you can and will drop prices when competition shows up, so you see 8000x profits when competitors see a competitive market.

Re: Why a Pill That's 4 Cents in Tanzania Costs Up to $400 in the U.S

#65

Post by pb000 »

While the article talks about big pharma, we can solve this specific parasite issue by switching to another approach: Traditional Chinese medicine. At $60/week per tea made of 8-12 ingredients one can completely expel parasites from the body in a few weeks. Of course, big pharma never makes that known or even knows about it themselves. People in rural areas of East Asia certainly do.

Re: Why a Pill That's 4 Cents in Tanzania Costs Up to $400 in the U.S

#67

Post by bufferoverflow »

geekamongus wrote: post #33
bufferoverflow wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical socialist answer. Burn a working system to the ground, so everyone suffers equally. At the very least the current system allows poor countries to enjoy cheap excellent drugs, researched and paid for by the wealthy western countries.

Please let us know what is "working" for US citizens about the current system.

You pay, you get healthcare. Yeah, it's not cheap, but your max out of pocket for 2017 with a marketplace plan is just $7150.

https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-li...

Re: Why a Pill That's 4 Cents in Tanzania Costs Up to $400 in the U.S

#68

Post by turc1656 »

What the article leaves out is that the real reason is that there are laws that were specifically passed to make import of drugs nearly impossible and illegal in most cases. The system is tightly controlled such that no price arbitrage can be had. This shit wouldn't fly with any other product. If it wasn't illegal, companies would be buying in bulk and importing to the US since the US price is literally 10,000x higher. Price would converge quickly. But Congress decided that should be outlawed. And to be clear, we're not talking about off-brand or fake pills that are manufactured in violation of the patent owners wishes. We're talking about the same pills manufactured by, for example, GSK and shipped to different locations around the world. The current system is simply global welfare that everyone in the US pays for.

Re: Why a Pill That's 4 Cents in Tanzania Costs Up to $400 in the U.S

#69

Post by rhino369 »

jonwachob91 wrote: post #49
justin66 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's unclear to me why another drug manufacturer doesn't come in and undercut the price. From the sound of things these diseases were until very recently isolated to poorer countries. Even today, with the increased number of cases, there might not be enough money to be made based on a few sick North Americans to justify tooling up to make a new drug. (Some of that is about FDA regulatory approval, but not much sinc…

>>From the sound of things these diseases were until very recently isolated to poorer countries. Even today, with the increased number of cases, there might not be enough money to be made based on a few sick North Americans to justify tooling up to make a new drug. The article also says albendazole, the drug in question, can be purchased in the UK for $2. Why can I not start a pharma company that A) imports albendazo…

I think our system is so fundamentally broken, you should be able to do that. But if you could, it would be an end run around the FDA. Might as well shut the FDA down in that case.

If you add burdensome regulatory costs to some competitors (domestic pills) but not others (foreign pills), the others will win all business. That is an unfair playing field. So part of the deal with regulating drugs in America is that you can't import drugs from other countries.

I think I'd probably allow importation of the exact drug, by the exact manufacturer. Or just set a price control saying you cannot sell a drug for more than 120% of the average price in the EU + Japan + Canada + Australia + NZ etc.

Re: Why a Pill That's 4 Cents in Tanzania Costs Up to $400 in the U.S

#70

Post by gizmo »

harryh wrote: post #59
edko wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the market in the US isn't big enough to recover the fixed costs. How many pills at 4 cents would they have to sell?

Yes, it definitely could be this which is why I said "my gut suspects the arduous FDA approval process." This could be the source of a lot of that fixed cost. I'd be generally curious to see data on what is involved in starting up a new production line for these kinds of pills. Is there a chemist in the house? :)

https://dailyreckoning.com/generic-bioequivalence-and-outrag...

Look for the explanation by Derek Lowe in the linked article. Key points:

> The FDA grants market exclusivity to companies that are willing to take ‘grandfathered’ compounds into compliance with their current regulatory framework.” Once a company does that, it gains an effective monopoly through the "generic bioequivalence" rules.

Setting up the production line isn't the issue, because the pharmaceutical company will outsource the actual manufacturing of the drugs anyway.

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