DRUGS-The True Costs (Medicine - Is the price we pay too high?)

Member Name: Cheuk

Product:	Medicine - Is the price we pay too high?
Date:	19/07/01 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Expensive drugs are affordable, New drug research

Disadvantages: Market has to pay for drug costs, Cheaper drugs are more expensive

Well I think I have to settle the issue straight, and although my main interest is to develop drugs to treat infectious disease, you can believe that this op will be based solely on facts as much as possible, with my views expressed at the end.

Very Brief Guide to Producing a new drug.
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1. Research
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This is where new drugs are found. Usually high number of compounds are screened for their effectiveness for their use and any potential candidates are then selected for futher tests. These further tests included find related compounds or to modify these compounds so that they are even more effective, and exciting compounds are then screened for their toxicity. Remember although the compound is effective it must be safe to use and have minimal side effects.

2. Clinical Trials
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If these tests are successful then after further trials then clinial trials can begin and these can be rather complex. These include the safety of the drug and the effectiveness of the drug against current products. Only when these are passed and a huge amount of paperwork is completed can the drug go on generally sale.

3. Development
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Although the drug is successful, it needs to be produced in quantities that can satisfy the demand for the market. New drugs often incur production problems and therefore demand can often exceed supply and the product can be expensive, just like all other things. Once the production is increased costs start to fall.

4. Marketing
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Although the drug might be brilliant, it needs to be marketed so that doctors know about it and can therefore buy it for their patients.

5. Patenting
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If the drug is novel then a patent can be applied so that competitors have to pay a fee to produce similar products. Applying for a patent can be costly and this only l
asts for 20 years, so the product has to sell sufficiently in this period to recoup all the initial costs, and don't forget by the time the product is on the market you've already started to eat in to your protected time. Competitors will also have similar products to offer so the cost can decrease as well.

Remember producing a drug is costly, to satisfy all the regulatory processes that are there to ensure the product is safe fo use. For every successful drug, there are many more that would have failed along the way, and these costs have to be paid for unfortunately, so any new drug can be expensive.

GENERIC Products
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Yes generic products are cheap. The quality can rarely be noticed. They are cheap as they do not have to through all the above processes. All that work has been done by the initial drugs company and they can bypass most of the requirement just ensuring that the product is safe and effective. Even accounting for fees payable to cover licencing fees, these products can still be cheaper, due to the fact that they did have to invest to cover the initial outlay.

An analogy would be to find and discover a new fruit. It is difficult to grow. You spend time and money to grow the fruit. You obviously want to protect your product so that anyone who wants to produce that fruit using your method have to pay for the privelage. After all you would be pretty angry if someone comes along and steals your ideas and products and sell it much cheaper.

PRESCRIPTION COSTS
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I'm afraid the 6 quid cost is expensive but it can also be cheap. For every prescription there are winner and losers. For example my hayfever prescription is much cheaper for two months worth of supply than it is to buy the equivalent for the same drug over the counter. My spray is even more expensive still costing nearly 6 times as much if I bought it privately. So here are exa
mples when the system is effective and you are the winner. However this has to be paid for somehow. We pay for it by paying more for cheaper drugs. Some courses of drug are much cheaper than 6 pounds, and we are paying more than we would have done if we got a private prescription.


SHOULD DRUGS BE CHEAPER ?
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YES - of course. Who likes paying more than they want to. But remember the salaries of scientists who do all the work have to be paid for, as well as all the failures, which outnumber any successful drug adding to the costs. The costs can then be ploughed back to pay for new research. If regulatory processes where lawyers are employed is simplified then costs could be reduced, but we would be rather afraid whether the product is safe enough for use if corners are cut.

This is the problem. Many drugs don't exist for diseases that are endemic, and reside primarily in the third world. This is because although there is a potential market
the product will not be affordable and if made cheap then money is lost to them initially and the market in countries that can afford them may not be big enough to recoup costs. Yes shareholders have to be pleased, but remember this is also a business, for drug companies to compete they have to invest in research to find new drugs and this is expensive, money has to be made someway to fund and recoup all the costs.

The NHS system I think is fair, we get expensive medicines much cheaper and affordable at the expense of paying more for cheaper drugs. The full cost of the drug still has to be met, and the NHS pay that difference. I rather have it this way than find out as in some other countries that the drug is expensive and that I can't have it because I can't afford it. Remember to win you sometimes have to be prepared for a little sacrifice.

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