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Drugs From Mark Cuban's Pharmacy Could Save Medicare Billions Every Year, Harvard Says
I think one thing that we can all agree on, no matter what politically philosophy we follow, is that government waste is real and that they don't do a lot to fix it.
I think at least most of us would agree that the cost of medication in this country is so much higher because of government, more specifically the FDA, and all of the hoops and favors that they offer.
I understand on some level protecting a company who has spent millions developing something for a short time to help them make up R&D costs and not just let others sit back and wait and then come in way under. We don't get the advancements we want/need if we do that. However, the rules as they lay them out allow many pharmaceutical companies to 'tweak' their method before their protected period runs out and often times they get an extension on exclusivity rights and that's really where **** hits the fan. Restricting competition doesn't do anyone any good except the company being given exclusive rights. Consumers pay and people suffer. That's where free market capitalism wins over government bureaucracy.
This Harvard study seems to indicate that our government, unsurprisingly, is overspending on generic drugs for Medicare and I'm sure that is benefiting a friend/donor somewhere to someone 'important'.
Waste isn't restricted to the medical field by any means, but that's what this article is about and I'm not surprised that this would be the case. I'd love to see some more research done by others to verify this, but I'm pretty sure it would be pretty easy to find the numbers on what certain generics are selling for and by whom.
Scientists with an eye towards helping the battered American consumer have recently published a paper finding that if government health insurance provider Medicare bought 77 generic medications from Mark Cuban’s drug company, it could save $3.6 billion annually.
Billionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank shark Mark Cuban founded “Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company” last year, with a mission statement of pricing down widely-prescribed medications by offering generic versions with less overhead.
Cuban’s drugs are priced by the cost of ingredients and manufacturing, plus a 15% margin, $3 pharmacy dispensing fee, and $5 shipping fee. This can often be half, even a quarter, of what name brand companies cost.
Selling generic ingredients without patented manufacturing or formulas is dropping the prices of drugs like Actos—prescribed for patients with diabetes and retailing at $74.40—to $6.60 for 30 pills.
It’s the easiest explanation in the world to answer why spending on drugs in America, as one study found, exceeds that in all other countries.
With the FDA’s requirement to prove efficacy and not just safety, it costs a pharmaceutical company a 10-figure investment to send a drug through FDA stage I, II, and III trials. Once passed, patent and other intellectual property laws enacted years ago by the federal government allows the drug company to patent certain methods of making a drug.
Lastly, artificial monopolies are awarded by the FDA to drug companies for specific drugs, removing any market force capable of regulating prices naturally, and leaving the only possible salvation for a country with a per-capita spending on pharmaceutical drugs of $858 to be begging the very government whose laws and departments created the problem in the first place to try and undo them.
Billionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank shark Mark Cuban founded “Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company” last year, with a mission statement of pricing down widely-prescribed medications by offering generic versions with less overhead.
Cuban’s drugs are priced by the cost of ingredients and manufacturing, plus a 15% margin, $3 pharmacy dispensing fee, and $5 shipping fee. This can often be half, even a quarter, of what name brand companies cost.
Selling generic ingredients without patented manufacturing or formulas is dropping the prices of drugs like Actos—prescribed for patients with diabetes and retailing at $74.40—to $6.60 for 30 pills.
It’s the easiest explanation in the world to answer why spending on drugs in America, as one study found, exceeds that in all other countries.
With the FDA’s requirement to prove efficacy and not just safety, it costs a pharmaceutical company a 10-figure investment to send a drug through FDA stage I, II, and III trials. Once passed, patent and other intellectual property laws enacted years ago by the federal government allows the drug company to patent certain methods of making a drug.
Lastly, artificial monopolies are awarded by the FDA to drug companies for specific drugs, removing any market force capable of regulating prices naturally, and leaving the only possible salvation for a country with a per-capita spending on pharmaceutical drugs of $858 to be begging the very government whose laws and departments created the problem in the first place to try and undo them.
I think at least most of us would agree that the cost of medication in this country is so much higher because of government, more specifically the FDA, and all of the hoops and favors that they offer.
I understand on some level protecting a company who has spent millions developing something for a short time to help them make up R&D costs and not just let others sit back and wait and then come in way under. We don't get the advancements we want/need if we do that. However, the rules as they lay them out allow many pharmaceutical companies to 'tweak' their method before their protected period runs out and often times they get an extension on exclusivity rights and that's really where **** hits the fan. Restricting competition doesn't do anyone any good except the company being given exclusive rights. Consumers pay and people suffer. That's where free market capitalism wins over government bureaucracy.
This Harvard study seems to indicate that our government, unsurprisingly, is overspending on generic drugs for Medicare and I'm sure that is benefiting a friend/donor somewhere to someone 'important'.
Waste isn't restricted to the medical field by any means, but that's what this article is about and I'm not surprised that this would be the case. I'd love to see some more research done by others to verify this, but I'm pretty sure it would be pretty easy to find the numbers on what certain generics are selling for and by whom.
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