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posted by janrinok on Monday August 15 2016, @01:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the money,-money,-money dept.

I ran across a story in the acclaimed “medical journal”, International Business Times, about how an old PMS medication from the 60s might be an Alzheimer's cure. Considering the source, I don't put a ton of stock in the story but it was interesting enough to look around a little more. That led me first to wikipedia to learn a little more about the drug in question (sounds like it has nasty side effects), which is when I got totally sidetracked:

Mefenamic acid is generic and is available worldwide under many brand names.[5]

In the USA, wholesale price of a week's supply of generic mefenamic acid has been quoted as $426.90 in 2014. Brand-name Ponstel is $571.70.[15] In contrast, in the UK, a weeks supply is £1.66, or £8.17 for branded Ponstan.[16] In the Philippines, 10 tablets of 500 mg generic mefenamic acid cost PHP39.00 (or the equivalent of $0.88USD) as of October 25, 2014.

The numbers in wikipedia may be extreme, but not by much. Looking online, I see that thirty 250mg tablets cost at least $111 at Walmart. In an almost direct reversal of the quantity and price numbers, one hundred 250mg tablets cost $35 from a UK manufacturer, but to get the drug at that price, you must break Federal law.

The rest of my comment would be a long string of expletives which I shall omit.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2016, @06:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2016, @06:17PM (#388305)

    You can regulate the prices thru law.

    The *real* way to drive prices down is competition.

    If you wanted to fix many of these things you would not allow companies to merge together. Think about this for a second. You can still buy from circuit city, wards, and radio shack. Zombie companies with 'assets' that were bought out and turned into another monster. Or think about this. I say James Bond you think Sony/MGM. You should be thinking United Artists. MGM is a left over band from mergers and they abandoned the UA name. Drugs are no different. If our country was really serious about this sort of thing they would say 'dead company' intellectual assets are now public domain.