Don't Like High Drug Costs? Blame Canada.

[m42]

After paying for everything else -- marketing, administrative costs, taxes, and so on -- drug companies have healthy but not overbearing net margins, especially considering that patents on many blockbusters are expiring soon, and the resulting reduced revenue will cut into margins. The companies have also offered to reduce prices of drugs for seniors in the Medicare doughnut.

If customers expect drug companies to continue to innovate, they can't have their government forcing drug companies to charge less.

But Canada does it!
Through a combination of price controls instituted by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), and through government negotiations at the provincial level, Canada is able to keep its drug costs down for its citizens. But that doesn't make it right.

In fact, I'd argue that I'm supplementing Canadians' health-care costs. If drug companies were able to charge more in Canada, they could charge less in the U.S. and still make the same net profit.

As much as I'd love to blame Canada's altering of the free market as the sole cause of the difference in drug costs, there are a couple of things Canada does that probably keeps its costs lower than ours....

http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...e-canada.aspx?

[alter-ego]

That's actually one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard. Maybe compared to other countries our drug prices are a bit lower but what we save in drugs we pay for in many other ways including continually rising taxes.

You wouldn't believe how much the government takes from my PayCheck every two weeks up until September, it's criminal. Most of the middle class lives in debt throughout the year and then tries to pay it off (with interest) from September - December.

While I do love being a resident in BC I can tell you from experience, it's very difficult to live in the Lower Mainland and maintain a residence, vehicle and child on a single income.

[m42]

The title was meant by the author to be a hook. He elaborates on it later in the article.

I feel for you, but dual income homes aren't afforded much leeway either.

The point is, you do save on drugs, and we eat some of the costs. Is it Canada's fault? No. It's ours for allowing the drug companies to ream us.

If you don't like continually rising taxes, start educating your people about the impacts of socialism.

[Allen Farlow]

Does anyone really believe that if Big Pharma could raise the prices on Canadians and make more profit in Canada that they would actually lower the prices they charge to Americans? Please!

We Americans get gouged on drug prices and the standard excuse for us paying higher prices than anywhere else is always that development of new drugs is so expensive.

They should put that on CD, then they wouldn't have to keep blowing all that hot air at the news conferences every time they announce record profits...especially now that Obama has promised he won't raise their costs of doing business.

[anonymously]

It must be the UK's fault really, because many of us get drugs free and the general populace pay a fixed price per item of only about 4$ US, whatever the real cost. Now that's a good health system.

[G10]

Originally Posted by anonymously

It must be the UK's fault really, because many of us get drugs free and the general populace pay a fixed price per item of only about 4$ US, whatever the real cost. Now that's a good health system.

Not really free as it is taken out of our pay via taxes so believe me, you're paying more than you think for them

That said, I say good for Canada for getting their meds cheaper

[anonymously]

Shh.....don't give all our secrets away

[andr97]

I think so far we will soon cure ourselves with the help of plants that grow near us, that would be much cheaper in any case

[anonymously]

and probably far more effective.

We do seem to be a medication mad society, everything can be cured with the right drug or operation. Sometimes the best cure is live in a way that looks after ones own body, rather than not giving a dam and then expecting some medication to cure what we have caught, developed of generally often brought on ourselves by our life style.