The price of drug prescribed to infants in Canada with a rare and potentially dangerous form of epilepsy has jumped by 2,000 per cent practically overnight, upsetting specialists and parents.

 

"The price of Synacthen Depot increased by more than 2,000 per cent from $33.05 per vial to $680 per vial," said Carolyn Ziegler, a spokeswoman for Alberta Health.

The price was so high that Alberta delisted it in July, Ziegler said, meaning it's no longer automatically paid for by the province. The drug may still be provided on a case-by-case basis

Health officials in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario reported similar increases.

"They just bought it and jacked up the price," Snead said.

 

The drug is long off patent.

 

 

 

 

 

Pharmaceutical companies.... don't you love em?

Isn't the argument that higher prices pay for increased research? It's a tough thing. We live in a society where we would love health care and drugs to be cheap and available but someone has to pay the enormous costs associated with research and development.

Not saying that's what this is. But it's an interesting conversation nonetheless.

that's the argument, it doesn't hold up

 

research was done a long time ago for this drug

 

and drug companies aren't coming up with many new drugs, just tweaking existing ones to renew patents

"

 

Fully 1 in 5 Americans take at least one psychiatric medication. Yet when it comes to mental health, we are facing a crisis in drug innovation.

Sure, we have many antidepressants, antipsychotics, hypnotic medications and the like. But their popularity masks two serious problems.

First, each of these drug classes is filled with “me too” drugs, which are essentially just copies of one another; we have six S.S.R.I. antidepressants that essentially do the same thing, and likewise for the 10 new atypical antipsychotic drugs.

Second, the available drugs leave a lot to be desired: patients with illnesses like schizophrenia, major depression and bipolar disorder often fail to respond adequately to these medications or cannot tolerate their side effects.

Yet even though 25 percent of Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental illness in any year,

 

there are few signs of innovation from the major drug makers.

 

 

 

also many drugs were developed by government, and then handed over to drug corps to do the commercial part of it.

 

it's a long story......

 

Drug companies do some good things, but have a long history of corruption, that is hard to top.

 

I read a book about it "corporate crime in the pharmaceutical industry"

 

It's an eye opener.

 

 jacking up the price from 33 dollars to 700 dollars for a life saving drug, is disgusting, and disgraceful.

Regulate the industry. Including pricing.

Regulate the industry. Including pricing.

 

 

You Socialist BASTERD!!!

 

JK