How drugs are priced---we all forget about all of the middlemen between the manufacturer of a product & the consumer who buys the product who ALL take their cut (increase the price to cover their costs+profit)
---the epipen debate/debacle increases the span/coverage concerning product prices & their possible control or NOT from not just drugs, but drug delivery systems!
---the US system does not like price controls & that is why prices can skyrocket & the US drug lobby says that innovation would be lost if price controls were in force.
---In Canada our system is different, but far from perfect & it could be better....eg.,'Canada's maximum price for any given patented drug is the median of what the drug goes for in France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, the U.K and the U.S. The price stays locked, rising only with inflation.'
---'And a complicating factor is that sometimes a particular drug isn't available in all seven countries. It may only be sold in three, two — or just the U.S., which effectively has no price controls at all.'
---'Companies now typically maintain a standard price for a drug across all territories, according to Morgan, then quietly arrange rebates or discounts with each country's regulator. '
---'The result? A regulator will base a drug's maximum price on its listed price in France, Germany and elsewhere, but will have no idea how much money those countries might have been rebated in an undisclosed deal with the drug company.'
---'This causes a lot of problems for Canada, because we end up going with the drug's sticker price rather than what it's actually selling for on the world market.'
---'rolling universal coverage of drugs into the health care system would address the problem.'
---'Canada would be best protected against ... high prices and supply interruptions if we had a single-payer system for prescription drugs, though that would take a lot of political will.'
carlos