Why Americans pay so much for brand-name drugs?

WHY AMERICANS PAY SO MUGH FOR BRAND-NAME DRUGS (AND C ANADIANS D ON'T) RX 105 2$ GP Why did Google AdWords recently settle for half a billion dollars with the Dept. of Justice? Illegal advertisements for online Canadian pharmacies. Google simply stood to make too much money feeding the U.S. appetite for cheap prescription drugs. Why Americans routinely choose to mail-order their prescriptions from Canada instead of getting them from the pharmacist down the street points to serious underlying problems in how the business of medicine is conducted in the United States. THE AMERICAN SITUATION Drugs are more expensive in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world. 118% MORE EXPENSIVE Buy a pill in the U.S. and it will cost you. SPENDING ON DRUGS PER P ERSON (2008): U.S. $919 Ireland $654 Italy $561 Japan $558 Spain $554 Iceland $520 Portugal $518 THE U.S. COMPARED TO THE WORLD: The average cost of the 30 most commonly prescribed drugs is a fraction of what the U.S. pays. AUS N ETH FR GER 76% U.S.A. CAN SWIZ 49% 45% 44% 34% 77% 63% 51% Canadians and Germans pay about % of what Americans do, New Zealanders nearly %. PRESC RIPTI ON DRUGS: The fastest growing sector of U.S. healthcare costs. In 1980: In 2003: $12 BILLION $184 BILLION 4.9 % of total healthcare spending 11.0% of total healthcare spending $ THE CANADIAN SITUATION What happens when things get ugly in America? Just like during the Vietnam War, some Americans look up north to Canada. 1,000,000+ 63% AMERICANS BUY FROM CANADA WANT EASIER ACCESS More than 1 in 300 Americans buy their medications online from Canada each year. Consumers believe that it should be easier for Americans to get access to Canadian drugs. WHY DO AMERICANS BUY THEIR DRUGS FROM CANADA? tirr Americans cannot afford their medications. MANY DO NOT FILLL THEIR PRESOC RIPTI ONS: 22% 32% of American seniors. of uninsured Americans. Uninsured make up 16% of the U.S. population. 20-80% SAVINGS Estimated savings on brand-name drugs for Americans ordering from a certified Canadian pharmacy SAVINGS AT C ANADI AN PH ARMACIES ARE O FTEN HHUGE. One example: Norvir® (Part of many HIVIAIDS treatments) IN CAN ADA: IN TH E U.S.: $700 $7,800 per year per year 9% of the American price. $4 DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER ADVERTISING: ONE REASON BEHIND THE COST ONLY COUNTRIES T O ALLOW DIRECT-TO-CONSUM ER ADVER- TISING BY D RUG CO MPANIES: New Zealand United States ADVERTISING PRES CRIPTION DRUGS: Pharmaceutical Industry Spending in the U.S. A FEW YEAR SLATER: -o- Medical journals - Direct-to-consumer Spending (US $ millions) $4.8 BILHом SPENT 2,000 1,600 - 1,200 By 2006, direct-to-consumer adver- 800 O -- 0 - - o tising of drugs had skyrocketed. 400 2$ 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 PHARMACEUTICAL BIG PHARMA EXPENSES (2 008): SPEN DS: 2X more on marketing than on research and development 36% 31% 18% BUY DRUGS! 15% Marketing and Administration Profits Research and Development Other SO HOW DO WE MAKE DRUGS CHEAPER IN THE U.S.? REGULATE M ARKETING Pharmaceutical companies must be forced to reign in their marketing. DON'T BUY DRUGS! ALLOW DRUG REIMP ORTATION How could America save $40 billion on prescription drugs? By permitting drugs produced by American companies and bought by Canada to be sold back to the U.S. at lower prices. IMPR OVE AL L SECTORS OF HEALTH CA RE +. Improvements in other sectors of health care, particularly administrative overhead and the ways in which medical records are processed, can help lower prescription costs for all Americans. But it can't be done with one single solution. CREATED BY MedicalBillingandCodingCertification.net References: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/August/11-dag-1078.html http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/what- makes-the-us-health-care-system-so-expensive-drugs/ http://www.oecd.org/document/16/0,3343,en _2649 34631 2085200 11.1.1,00.html http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/do-you-really- care-about-spending/ * http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1936287/ http://articles.orlandosentinel.com 12010-05-02/news/os-drugs-canada-online-20100502.1.doughnut-hole-canadian-online-pharmacy-drugs www.vaoutcomes.org/papers/DTC_ads.pdf * http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2009/02/27/f-onlinedrugs.html http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.htm • http://mdcarroll.com/2009/10/25/explaining- research-drug-company-expenditures-part-1/ * http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2594405/ pdf/jnma00323-0029.pdf * http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/13/news/economy/census_bureau_health_insurance/index.htm BY NO ND This work is under a Creative Commons License.