A National Disgrace

A recent front page story re: "High Drug Costs..." fails, as expected, to mention a host of relevant facts, bulleted here to save words:

·       Medicare part D (2003 Bush era Law) bans Medicare from negotiating drug costs and 3 of 5 Part D insurers specifically ban some generics, in favor of more expensive specific brand names

·       Medicare pays 706% more than the VA for same Cholesterol drug! Zoloft costs Medicare more than twice what the VA pays.

·       Rep Billy Tauzin (R-La), who sponsored part D, retired just after its passage , is now  president of Largest Pharma lobbying group at $2 million annually.

·        Pharmaceuticals  average just about 3 times the national average for corporate net profits. In 2016, Pfizer hit 42% NET profit.

·       Many, "new"  drugs are now developed with Federal grant money. Harvoni for Hepatitis  C, by a professor at Emory with an NIH grant. Allowed to patent it, he did, than sold the patent to Gilead for $400 million! Gilead charges Medicare around $90,000 for the 12 week course of treatment. The same drug and course costs $197 in India and under $12,000 in the UK!  

·       Big Pharma lobbying heavily favors Republicans, but heavily lines pockets of both. 2016 numbers show that of the top 7 contributors by industry, 4 were medically related. The total spent by just Pharma was over $312 million. For some perspective that's more than  $500,000 for every single member of Congress!

·       Have you heard Paul Ryan or Donald Trump, or anyone, for that matter,   even mention this sweetheart deal for Big Pharma while they're speaking of cutting medical services to the poor? Me neither. And by the way, Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine with a government grant and gave it to the world for free.