Essay about The High Cost of Branded Drugs in the United States

The U.S. Health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance.” (WHO, 2000, p. 1) Progression in the United States has not kept up with the advances in other wealthy nations dealing with the population health. Disease and chronic disability report almost 50% of America health problem (JAMA, 2013).

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most powerful and greedy industries in our country, with a goal to make as large a profit as possible, at the expense of the sick.

The rise in drug prices is causing the public to ask why this is so and why there isn’t anything being done, or what the reason could be for sky high prices. Some of the reasons include pharmaceutical companies setting their drug prices

Economic: Globalization of the pharmaceutical industry is an exciting opportunity to have research and development done at cheaper prices in other countries. However, this could be a double edged sword for companies because it is easy for other countries, such as India, to produce generic versions of the drug in bulk.

The prices of prescription drugs in the United States are by far the highest in the world. [1] On average, Europeans pay 40% less than Americans for the same medications. [2] Consumers have been resorting to several ways, sometimes putting themselves in harm’s way, to alleviate the burden of high prescription drug costs. Some buy their medications online or cross the borders to neighboring countries so they would be able to afford buying their needed medications. Others have resorted to the illegal act of selling their unused medications in online forums just to recover part of their expenses. Many factors contribute to the increased drug prices in the United States including research and

"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system are not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in

The branded pharmaceutical firms account for more than 50% of worldwide pharmaceutical sales. Thus they make huge profits. These profits can be used to fund hospitals in poor areas. This will not only give the firms respect but also a good recognition. Generic medicines are cheap and easily available. Though they may not be effective, but they serve the purpose for the poor. Some generic medicines may not give the desired results but the major diseases which occur among the poor people can be treated with generic medicines.

burns through $2,797 more every individual consistently than other industrialized nations, despite the fact that 47 million of those individuals are uninsured so the U.S. spends more is that simply the value we pay for having the free decision of suppliers and driving the trends in therapeutic innovation. Not really because no less than 30 percent of all delivered human services administrations are thought to be pointless on the grounds that they do not make very sick individuals any healthier. As an illustration, we should consider Medicare spending. One study contrasted patients and comparable afflictions in high-spending Medicare areas and low-spending Medicare districts. Those patients in the high-spending ranges, who saw their specialist all the more regularly and spent more days in the health facilities, had an expanded risk of biting the dust when contrasted with patients in the lower-spending territories who had the same ailment. It's as though heading off to the specialist in this nation can make a man significantly more debilitated, maybe on the grounds that a patient runs the danger of experiencing unnecessary treatment that correct only the symptoms and not the disease (PBS,

The high prices set by pharmaceutical companies for drugs allows the companies to continue researching, developing, and producing new drugs. As new diseases are discovered, new medications must be discovered in order to treat them.

In the business of drug production over the years, there have been astronomical gains in the technology of pharmaceutical drugs. More and more drugs are being made for diseases and viruses each day, and there are many more drugs still undergoing research and testing. These "miracle" drugs are expensive, however, and many Americans cannot afford these prices.

The pharmaceutical industry continues to be a major driver of trend. While demand for medicine rapidly increases in emerging economies, a growing number of consumers are also analyzing the economic performance of different medicines. These events will heighten the challenges the

“A year ago we said that we need to introduce prescriptions these tablets don't cost much but the profit margins are high. Some pharmacies make up to 25 per cent of their profits from the sale of these tablets. It's not in the interests of pharmaceutical companies or pharmacies themselves to stop this, so the government needs to use its power to regulate their sale.”

Recently, there has been a debate about the high prescription drug prices in the United States. Accounting for 9.7% of the national health expenditure, $329.2 billion was spent on prescription medications ($931 per person) in 2011 (Linton, 2014). So what exactly is the average American getting with their $931? Well, because there is an extraordinary amount of time, effort, and energy that goes into creating, manufacturing, and distributing a new drug, it’s no wonder the prices are so high. But what other costs are folded into the prices of your prescribed medications? This review looks beyond just the research and development costs needed to take a new drug from idea to shelf by examining several journals and other credible, secondary sources, to shed some light on how much pharmaceutical companies are spending to develop, advertise, and sell their drugs.

Compared with other industrialized nations, the US has an average or below-average rates of chronic conditions, comparatively few doctor visits and hospitalization, and a relatively young population. However, extensive use of poorly coordinated specialists and duplication of resources due to more fragmented care delivery and substantially higher prices has led to higher healthcare spending.

The United States (U.S.) healthcare system is ranked amongst the top most expensive and technologically sophisticated healthcare systems in the world, yet the system fails to yield adequate health service for the tremendous amount of money it spends. According to Holtz (2008), in 2004 the U.S. spent $1.7 trillion or about 15.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) share on healthcare where the “health expenditures were $6100 per capita, which is higher than any other country” (Holtz, 2008, p. 1). Moreover, the health and pharmaceutical expenditures are rapidly increasing each year creating an economical burden in the country. In 2009, the U.S. was “ranked sixth lowest in life expectancy amongst