Profits before health in the United States
In These Times recently featured an interview with Melody Petersen about the pharmaceutical industry where she made several great points. The entire interview is worth reading, but here are a few quotes that stood out.
Two-thirds of men, women and children in the United States take at least one prescription drug. And children in the United States are three times more likely to take anti-depressants and psychiatric drugs as children in Europe. We spend at least $300 billion a year on prescription drugs. That is about twice what we spend on higher education.
Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against the drug companies. The federal government has collected billions of dollars from the industry to settle charges of illegal marketing. But the drug companies just raise their prices, so they can pay out half a billion dollars on lawsuits, and continue doing exactly what they have been doing. It’s an endless cycle. I think some of the top pharmaceutical executives should face criminal charges, so they would think twice about allowing these fraudulent practices.
Do you know of another industrial country that does not negotiate with drug companies for better prices?
The United States is the only country in the world that allows the drug companies to charge whatever they want.
You write that there are two pharmaceutical lobbyists for every member of Congress. What are they doing on Capitol Hill?
The pharmaceutical industry fights against any measure that threatens its profits. Present law gives the drug companies a 20-year patent on each drug. During that time, they have a monopoly in the market. They can charge whatever they want for that drug. They have fought against any measure to allow more reasonable drug prices.
That last quote brings us full circle to my point earlier about the deeply flawed intellectual property laws in this country. It’s particularly unpleasant to see how our capitalist-driven morality has led to a situation where large pharmaceutical companies control medicine even though they clearly put profit before health and innovation.
