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2,000% price hike for infant seizure drug called 'absurd'

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Air Langhi, Nov 16, 2015.

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  1. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

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    The price of drug prescribed to infants in Canada with a rare and potentially dangerous form of epilepsy has jumped by 2,000 per cent practically overnight, upsetting specialists and parents.

    Infantile spasms, also called West syndrome, is a catastrophic and rare form of epilepsy. It's diagnosed in babies with seizures that show abnormal bursts in the brain's electrical activity on an electroencephalogram or EEG.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/infantile-seizures-drug-1.3318183
     
  2. glynch

    glynch Member

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    According to believers, It is the right of a capitalist to charge whatever they want. "Free to Choose" as Uncle Milton Friedman, one of the patron saints of Supply Side and free markets, entitled one of his most famous books. The infants' parents are free to choose whether to buy the drug or not
     
  3. BigggReddd

    BigggReddd Member

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    Supply and demand? Pretty ****ed up, but that's how they do it.
     
  4. Major

    Major Member

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    Did the amount of supply suddenly change? Demand - lots of new people suddenly suffering from West synrdome?

    This is about monopolies, not supply/demand.
     
  5. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Member

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    No, it's about the invisible hand dictating market forces.
     
  6. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    If no one could pay it they wouldn't charge that much. These price schemes go back to how insurance works more than anything.
     
  7. glynch

    glynch Member

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    So you are saying the insurance market under capitalism is the culprit?
     
  8. bnb

    bnb Member

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    insurance....the long approval process (even for off patent drugs)...and an ugly business trend of identifying effective boutique drugs that they can juice.

    this isn't the recovery of research costs. It's buying existing drugs/companies and then stripping the parts and exploiting pricing opportunities. If they couldn't up the price by these absurd amounts, they wouldn't pay so much for the companies that produced these 'money losing' drugs.

    If this trend continues, they're goading the Gov't to take action...
     
  9. ThatBoyNick

    ThatBoyNick Member

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    Their should be a law that only allows for medecince prices to jump up a maximum prevent of their previous price over some amount of years.
     
  10. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    Who said America is a capitalist society? We are closer to socialist than capitalist. Also, insurance and healthcare aren't exactly free markets with transparent pricing. However, I do agree that profit should not be the driving in medical treatment. Healthcare is fundamentally ****ed up in this country. I don't feel like ranting and writing a ton about it now, but it's just really annoying when my friend has a kid and still had to pay $5000 out of pocket on a complication free delivery (he has a what is supposed to be a good insurance plan too) and saw his insurance shoot up by $750/mo. Not blaming the ACA for this either.
     
  11. glynch

    glynch Member

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    Single payer i.e Medicare for all is the answer, but the insurance companies, their lobbyists and the brain washed conservatives are still stalling it.
     
  12. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Member

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  13. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Profit Motive has no place in Medicine . . . . . . .

    Someone said
    You can choose your car
    You can choose your house
    You can choose your food

    You don't really choose to get sick .
    You don't really choose to have accidents
    You don't really choose to be born with a disease

    Such profitting off misfortune is . . .. . unfortunate

    Rocket River
     
  14. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"
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    I think whoever decided to name a drug 'absurd' should fire their branding team.
     
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