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Drug companies are sitting on generics—43% of recently approved aren't for sale
Of the more than 1,600 generic drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration since January of 2017, more than 700—or 43 percent—are not for sale in the US, according to a new analysis by Kaiser Health News.
The finding means that many pricy, brand-name drugs are not facing the competition that could help drive down soaring prices. Among the drugs missing in action are generic versions of the expensive blood thinner Brilinta and the HIV medication Truvada. Moreover, of the approved drugs that would offer a brand-name drug its first competition, 36 percent are being held off the market, the analysis found.
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Drug Companies are Sitting on Generics—43% of Recently Approved Aren’t for Sale
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Any woman is a volume if one knows how to read her.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Sunday February 10 2019, @09:29PM (4 children)
George Soros to the rescue? But there are too few like him to do much. You write like you don't understand the culture that arises around great wealth, power, and privilege. It's a very corrupting environment, and it turns the heads of most children who grow up in it. Spoils them. It's not good for us or them. The people deep in it strive to perpetuate it, in many ways. They get to thinking they're superior, and above the rules. They need constant humbling and watching and reining in every time they try to hurt someone else, and break a few dozen more rules.
Instead, there are plenty of pathetic little people who aspire to little more than to be rich men's poodles. They're in many ways the worse problem. They're the ones who elevate the powerful and rich, feed their overly large egos, and let them say and do anything they want. It's often their little hands that do the dirty work. And their limited thinking allows them to do the dirty deeds with an utter lack of awareness that it's immoral, anti-Christian, anti-democratic, fascist, illegal, reckless, damaging, or just plain stupid.
If anything is to be done, we the people have to do it. And actually, you can do many things. They will be little things, and many will have little to no effect. The first thing to do is stop the worship! You are pining for a billionaire to do something. Really? Stop that. Next is your vote. Vote for a 3rd party. But most of all, what can pay the most is to hone your senses so that you can tell when someone or some organization is trying to put one over on you, trying to give you the old shakedown, trying to tell you that something is customary and expected and everyone does it, trying to pull a "Permit Patty" on you. And then, don't fall for it!
And medicine abounds with examples of that. For some medical service that may have been a good idea, or may be overkill if not outright unnecessary, first, your health insurance refuses to cover it. Perhaps they are within the letter of their obligations, and perhaps not. They may be lying. Then you get the next lie, from the medical providers. If insured, your copayment would have amounted to 3% of the list price. Next thing you know, because you're not covered, the doctors are demanding you pay the full amount, the list price, and they threaten to turn you over to debt collectors if you don't pay. They may be willing to give you 20% off if you hurry up and pay quick, quick, quick. Yeah, you thought you would owe $30 (10% of the insurance adjusted rate of $300 rather than their fantasy berserk list price of $1000), but they want the full $1000, and are willing to settle for $800. That's more bull. It may be possible to tell them all to get lost. I was in that situation, and I offered to pay what Medicare said their services were worth. They refused, acting all indignant that I could think Medicare's prices were fair, and sicced the debt collectors on me. I turned them all away.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday February 10 2019, @11:51PM (2 children)
If you really did what you said, I simultaneously pity and admire you. Putting ourselves through that kind of stress generally isn't worthwhile. You're a drop in the bucket. Plip! Yes, most people who accumulate power stay within the system, but they don't *all* work the same way (Soros vs. Koch) and they don't all even play along that same axis (Musk, and perhaps a few other mavericks). Get real. Individuals are just dx. Organizations and the people who run them are the integral. Your actions are essentially meaningless unless you have the charisma to launch an effective general strike against the system.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday February 11 2019, @01:59AM (1 child)
I fought the hospital for a year over that bill. Demanded the line item break down. Questioned their numbers, the items, the insurance adjustments. The bill just seemed too high. Their fantasy list price was $21k. Insurance adjusted it to about $4k, and I was on the hook for the entire amount thanks to the $6k deductible a lot of insurance plans have. They told me that if I didn't have insurance, they would discount the price a whopping 86%, for a bill of about $2.5k. Medicare says the services they provided were actually worth a bit under $300. I learned of medical billing advocates, and they pointed out 1 error in the bill, for a savings of $150. Weirdest of all was radically different prices for the same things. For 3 $2 bags of saline solution for which the hospital charged $307 each, insurance adjusted them to $150, $64, and $27 respectively. I wanted to know how that was not a mistake, and no one could explain it. It's their business to know, and they didn't. On 3 different calls to insurance, got 3 different wrong explanations by call center flunkies who pretended they knew. The many other times I called, they admitted they couldn't explain it either. I finally took the hints, and told the hospital to shove their insane bills. I paid what Medicare said their services were worth. I also finally heard from elsewhere what I think is the correct explanation, and I decided that if that was so, I did not agree with the system, and was not going to pay their prices regardless.
I realize that's a lot more effort than most people are willing or able to devote. Most of all, people would rather just believe in doctors, take them at their word that the medical organizations are asking a fair price, though they really do know better. I was even castigated for being "ungrateful". I was asked how could I cheat the doctors, as if they were holy ones, and questioning the bill was akin to stealing money from the collection plate at church on Sunday.
Another fight I fought was a red light camera ticket. I asked for a hearing, knowing that the system was rigged and I was unlikely to see any justice. What I was really aiming for was to deny them any profit. The cost of holding a hearing was very likely quite a bit more than the fine, and I understood the real motivation behind the system was money, safety be damned. Nevertheless, I prepared evidence of their cheating. The light was improperly timed, and I brought along proof of that. The judge wouldn't even look at my evidence, it was outside the scope of the hearing, and ruled against me. Said that I could pursue the matter of improper timing in municipal court. I decided against that. Had played their game quite enough and wasn't willing to go further with that mockery of justice, not in their own muni court, no way. If I was going to do that, I'd want a court outside their jurisdiction. Instead, I boycotted the city. I don't shop there any more.
So that's a sample of the sorts of things citizens ought to do. If a lot more citizens fought back against these sorts of injustices, many of these corrupt money grabs would collapse under their own expenses.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday February 11 2019, @07:00AM
I think in a lot of cases, they overcharge so they can negotiate down, and to try to cover some of the costs of indigent people who don't have anything they can collect. At least they provided medical care, though. Your insurance, though, all they do is have a computer spit out random numbers and then justify them with bad explanations.*
Seems like this is exactly the kind of thing local news is good at exposing, especially since they sometimes have to look for stories that aren't already all over the Internet already.
* Maybe it was a buy-one, get the next two cheap sale-ine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @01:02AM
The butlers, sycophants and such at least realize what they are doing. The worst are the people getting paid on government grants who still think their entire education and purpose hasn't been coopted.