CBC News - World - U.S. senator slams 'parasitic' Canada over drug prices »
Posted By greenmac 2 months ago in News
An American legislator called Canada parasitic on Wednesday for siphoning U.S. dollars to Canada with low prescription drug prices while his country does all the innovation.
Read Full Story at cbc.ca »
485 Views Share Story 23 Comments Report
Submitted By:
greenmac
Ok..Ok....This is where I say something great about myself.....hmmmm. I like daylight and night time as well. How am I doing so ...
Who Also Submitted:
RSS Join the Discussion
+ Add CommentComments So Far: 23 (view all)
-
100%
greenmac2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Additional link
Reply
"{Washington, D.C. - A new report by the consumer health organization Families USA refutes the pharmaceutical industry's claim that high and increasing drug prices are needed to sustain research and development. The report documents that drug companies are spending more than twice as much on marketing, advertising, and administration than they do on research and development; that drug company profits, which are higher than all other industries, exceed research and development expenditures; and that drug companies provide lavish compensation packages for their top executives.
The report comes on the heels of a recent Families USA analysis that found prices rose more than twice the rate of inflation last year for the 50 most-prescribed drugs to seniors.
Among the nine pharmaceutical companies examined in the report - Merck, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacia, Abbott Laboratories, American Home Products, Eli Lilly, Schering-Plough, and Allergan - all but one (Eli Lilly) spent more than twice as much on marketing, advertising, and administration than they did on research and development, and Lilly spent more than one and one-half times as much. Six out of the nine companies made more money in net profits than they spent on research and development last year. [see chart 1.]"
http://www.actupny.org/reports/drugcosts.html -
100%
cowboygrandpa2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
FTA:
Reply
"An American legislator called Canada "parasitic" on Wednesday for siphoning U.S. dollars to Canada with low prescription drug prices while his country does "all the innovation."
Canada benefits financially from America's role as a world leader in medical advances, Republican Senator Bob Corker charged in an exchange with a Liberal MP as she testified before a U.S. Senate committee.
"One of the things that has troubled me greatly about our system is the fact that we pay more for pharmaceuticals and devices than other countries, and yet it's not really our country so much that's the problem, it's the parasitic relationship that Canada and France and other countries have towards us," the Tennessee lawmaker told Carolyn Bennett.
"Meaning that you set prices and unfortunately all the innovation, all the technological breakthroughs, just about, take place in our country .… You benefit from us, and we pay for that, and I resent that."
Bennett, a family doctor and one-time minister of state for public health, was one of five people testifying before the Senate special committee on aging. The panel, chaired by Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl and including newly minted Sen. Al Franken, was examining how successful health-care systems keep their costs low while maintaining quality care.
She seemed puzzled by Corker's remarks, reminding him that drug pricing was a global concern, not part of a plot by Canada.
"It's the drug companies, sir, and they're multinational — it's nothing about the United States of America," she told him.
Their debate comes as U.S. Democratic senator Byron Dorgan from North Dakota is preparing to make a legislative push in the days to come that would legally allow Americans to buy cheaper Canadian drugs.
Dorgan will introduce an amendment to the health-care reform legislation currently before the Senate finance committee that would legalize so-called re-importation. Under current U.S. law, only pharmaceutical companies are allowed to import prescription drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration into the United States.
Drug companies import more than US $40 billion in drugs into the United States, while drug wholesalers and consumers are shut out of the global marketplace. Consequently, Dorgan has long maintained, Americans pay higher prices for prescription drugs than anywhere else in the world."
Will someone please show these idiot Republican nut bags, and their rabid base of out of touch greedy me firsters, where the door out is ???? Oh and please take the Democrats who are just like ya with ya please.
It is time this country was for its citizens and not for the huge multinational corporations whose goal is to destroy all freedoms around the world !!!!!!
If it doesn't involve a profit for them they are against it. If it helps Americans who are not wealthy, they don't want to pay for it. -
100%
greenmac2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
We all talk about health costs and how much a trip to the hospital can be if we lack insurance. Drugs become a fact of life for many of us as we grow older... some of these drugs are not covered by insurance. In Canada we may have a good universal healthcare plan, but we have to pay for our drugs in most cases. we do this through additional insurance plans, either through our company plans or retirement plans ....or out of pocket. Yes.... drugs can lead to your down fall..LOL
Reply-
100%
Radiofreeeuropa2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
The pharmaceutical companies spend far more on lobbying the congress than they do on research and make US pay for it....plus the cost of those boner pill ads they televise every 55 minutes.....
Reply
Drugs do lead to your downfall...a wise observation Greenmac.
In the U'S. the entire republican party is in the tank for Pharma and Insurance companies and so are a significant amount of the Dems...if we get the slightest improvement in our lot it will be nothing short of a miracle of some kind.
(Especially when you consider that a significant amount of Americans are brainwashed by Murdoch, Limbaugh, Beck and the like to parrot anything pulled out of their a*ses)
It's a sad sad state of affairs.
-
-
100%
Will13132 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
These people are going slowly off the deep end. wow..
Reply
problem is. as witnessed right here on these boards. many are following the loonies every word..
whats really scary..i was reading the local paper this morning and many like minded people live right here in good ole s Florida. . that's one of the biggest reason I CARRY A GUN.. loonies EVERYWHERE-
-
0%
slate2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Hey at least some of us on this board hasn't said the Helth Care Bill has anything to do with the Holocaust and that you guys want us to die fast,,,,,, as per one of the Dems (from FL) on the HIll did yesterday. Wouldn't you call that lonney? I wonder if he carries a gun too?
Reply
-
-
100%
Charlson2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Republicans and some Democrats do not stand for the principle of free and fair competition in the market place. They've fought tooth and nails to continue the practice of allowing the pharmaceutical industry to set their prices instead of following Canada's example of negotiating with the same pharmaceuticals and getting a great deal so their citizens have access to the same drugs but at a lot less cost. The fault lies on our side of the border and not Canada.
Reply -
100%
greenmac2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Sorry about talking in quotes today...but...here seems to be a lot of info regarding the gouging of the public in the meds buisness.
Reply
" Drug companies have been able to get away with their high prices because the vast majority of people do not pay for their medications anymore. It's insurance companies that are picking up the tab. Since most people do not pay for it directly, drug companies are able to get away with charging outrageous prices.
Drug companies are the most profitable industry
The drug companies claim that they need large earnings - 125,835,595,000 in 1999 (2) - to conduct their research and development. They have a point - only up to a degree. Aggressive research is indeed needed. The medications produced by the pharmaceutical industry have improved the quality and length of life of many people. But this justification loses credibility when:
1. Just 1 out of every 5 dollars the drug industry collects goes to drug research.
2. Some drug companies spend almost twice as much money for advertising and marketing as they spend for research.
3. Drug industry profits are so large they outstrip every other industry's profits by far (3).
Drug companies are the most profitable industry. In 2001, a year which saw a drop in employment rates, a plunge in the stock market and symbols of America's economy literally come crashing down, the drug companies continued their reign as the most profitable industry in the annual Fortune 500 list.
While the overall profits of Fortune 500 companies declined by 53%, which was the 2nd biggest dive in profits the Fortune 500 has taken in its 47 years, the top 10 U.S. drug companies increased their profits by 33% (3)." -
100%
cowboygrandpa2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Off the track a little.
Reply
I don't like the drugs they prescribe anyway !!!
Damn, everything they try to give ya to mask the symtoms, or heal them, cause others up to and including death !!!!
I'd rather deal with problems the old fashioned way.
I'll take pain killers to relieve the most severe pain. But pain is a message saying something is wrong. So we either change what we are doing or we suffer the pain.
But ya know we all have things we do. Like work or the pursuit of relaxation that cause us problems.
Greed doesn't work, but neither does expecting medicines to cure our behavioral problems. LOL-
100%
greenmac2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I agree CB... drugs are prescribed in a lot of cases..not to treat a problem..but to mask a problem. Anti depressants and sleeping pills are two of the most abused .
Reply
http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/pharmaceuti... -
-
-
-
-
-
-
100%
primusdawg2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
On CBC.Ca, Sparx 1_1 wrote:
Reply
What a load of crap.
We buy American drugs from American companies! We are not siphoning off anything. What they need to be addressing is the fact that drug companies sell to us at a significantly reduced cost and STILL make a profit. These companies sell globally and Canada might pay less than some countries but we definitely pay more than others. AND US drug companies only export the stuff they can't sell domestically - meaning the US market is supplied first.
Manufacturers don't stop production just because they've supplied one customer. They already produce far more than the US market can use which is why they sell it to us and the rest of the world. Our supplies would not be affected.
These senators should be asking a different set of questions.
Why is it that Americans pay so much more for the exact same product? Why is it that AFTER the added costs of shipping and exporting drugs are cheaper once they leave the country?
Why are US hospitals and insurance companies willing to tolerate this - oh wait US healthcare is medicine for profit...
Why does the US disallow imports of less expensive medications in favour of allowing an uncontrolled big pharma monopoly ... oh wait US healthcare is medicine for profit....
Why do more Americans than the entire population live without health insurance .. oh wait US healthcare is medicine for profit.
Of the 49 industrialized nations why is it that the US ranks 48th beating only Latvia?
Time to blame Canada ..... -
-
Neutral
voaks127731 month, 4 weeks ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
God forbid another Country make money from American consumers instead of greedy wealthy American Corporations. Our politicians are ignorant greedy prostitutes, but one thing for sure the mass of idiots in this racially concious country wont have a problem because corporations distort the truth and play them like puppets.
Reply
Add a Comment
Sign In With Your Propeller Account
Please keep your comments relevant to this story.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.