Patently Ridiculous

 

Developing an effective new drug and then bringing it to market is an expensive process. A very expensive process. In an analysis of the drug development costs for 98 companies over a decade, the average cost per drug developed and approved by a single-drug company was $350 million. But for companies that approved between eight and 13 drugs over 10 years, the cost per drug went as high as $5.5 billion, due mainly to geographic expansion for marketing and ongoing costs for Phase IV trials and continuous monitoring for safety. Any way you look at it, that is a lot of money.

Drug companies often cite these high costs as justification for the often astronomical prices of drugs on the market. Most people would agree that investing in the development of important new drugs is a social good and should be well rewarded. But according to Andrew Witty, the former CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, the R&D costs cited by drug manufacturers are "one of the great myths of the industry". Why? Because of the patent system.

Patent protection allows a company to sell the product that it developed for over a decade without any competition. Its no secret that brand name drugs are more expensive than essentially identical generic versions of the same drug, and the difference is growing rapidly. In 2013, brand name drugs were about 6 times more expensive than generics; by 2017 - just 4 years later - they are 18 times as expensive. The patent system prevents generic drugs from even being sold so long as the patent is valid (about 10 years in most cases). Ten years of charging 18 times what a competitor would charge for a product people urgently need.

But wait! There's more!

Drug companies are constantly gaming the system by making insignificant changes to a drug as it comes out of patent protection - making it a pill instead of a capsule or changing the dosage or targeting it at a different condition - and then patenting the same drug all over again. And when a drug does come off patent protection, it is not uncommon for a drug company to simply pay generic manufacturers to not produce a generic version of a profitable drug.

There is much more behind the high cost of drugs than just the patent protection system. But do we really want to tolerate a system that lets us pay $200 for a drug that we could buy for $10 in Toronto?

What can you do to protect yourself? Often nothing. But here are a few things you can do.

1. Drugs do not cost the same everywhere. Shop around. If you have a chronic condition be sure to investigate online sources.

2. Do not assume that your health insurance will get you the best price. If can often be cheaper to use a pharmacy discount card or, if you have hefty copays, to just pay for it yourself. (Truth.)

3. ALWAYS ask you doctor if there is a generic or cheaper brand name version of what you need. Doctors tend to prescribe what they are familiar with without regard to the cost.

4. ALWAYS ask your doctor or pharmacist if a combination drug would be cheaper to buy as individual components. In some unusual cases this can reduce the cost as much as 96%.

5. Review your medications at every doctor visit and make sure you still need to be taking them. Doctors will rarely suggest stopping a medication.

Better yet, make the diet and lifestyle changes that will minimize or eliminate the need to tale medication at all.