BIG PHARMA Tells Americans, "No Fuckin' Way We'll Let You Buy Cheaper Drugs From Canada, UK, India, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, South Korea, Or Any Other Country!
Palin'sAnusRimmer
$424 in the United States."
But you just know most Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce, and the
remnants of Bush's pro-industry, anti-consumer FDA will back
drugmakers on this one!
Now, who you seniors gonna get mad at?
-----------------
"Drugmakers fight plan to allow imports"
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Drugmakers intensified their lobbying push Monday against a popular
proposal to allow Americans to buy cheaper drugs from other countries,
one of several heated disputes that have bogged down negotiations over
a heath-care reform bill.
The talks prompted hospitals, insurers and other major industries
attempting to steer the legislation in their favor to push for changes
as lawmakers work through a handful of complex issues. Medical
providers, for example, are battling a proposed Democratic compromise
that would jettison a public insurance option in favor of a limited
expansion of Medicare, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce flew dozens
of corporate executives to Washington last week to meet with
lawmakers.
The fight over the proposal further complicates Democrats' efforts to
build support for health-care legislation in the Senate. The dispute
also poses a particularly difficult political challenge for President
Obama, who co-sponsored a similar bill when he was in Congress and who
included funding for the idea in his first budget.
The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), would allow
pharmacies and wholesalers to import U.S.-approved medication from
Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, where drug costs are
far lower because of price controls. The measure has attracted
bipartisan support from lawmakers, including Sens. Olympia J. Snowe (R-
Maine) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).
But the pharmaceutical industry -- which has been a key supporter of
health-care reform after reaching an agreement with the White House
earlier this year -- has responded with a fierce lobbying campaign
aimed at killing the proposal, focusing on Democratic senators from
states with large drug and research sectors.
In addition, Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug
Administration, raised safety concerns about the Dorgan amendment in a
letter to the Senate, warning that the agency is unable to ensure that
such drug imports would not be counterfeited or contaminated. The FDA
has cited such concerns for more than a decade, repeatedly rebuffing
attempts by Congress to allow prescription drug imports.
The dispute traps Obama between his campaign rhetoric and the
political realities of health-care reform, which depends in large part
on tacit support from drugmakers and other industry groups. Under the
earlier agreement with the White House, the pharmaceutical industry
agreed to contribute $80 billion toward reform over 10 years in
exchange for protection from further cuts.
"It's about being a candidate as opposed to being president," said Ken
Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research &
Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). "When you become president, you
realize that the sound bites don't always work in reality. . . . I
think they've looked at the problems now and have concluded there's no
way to ensure the safety of medicines reimported into the United
States right now."
The White House is attempting to strike a balance, expressing approval
of the idea to allow drug imports while bowing to the FDA's safety
concerns. "The president supports reimportation of safe and effective
drugs," White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass said, adding that the
FDA "will continue exploring policy options to create a pathway" to
allow the purchases.
An anticipated vote on Dorgan's amendment was initially blocked on
Thursday by Democratic Sen. Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, home to the
U.S. headquarters of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Carper backs
a different version of the legislation that supporters decry as a
poison pill.
Carper said in a statement that he shares the FDA's concerns that
"Senator Dorgan's amendment could potentially allow unsafe,
counterfeited drugs into the United States, contaminating our drug
supply. This is a complicated issue that affects people's lives. We
should make sure that the FDA says it's safe before we reimport drugs
from other countries."
McCain complained about the role of PhRMA, saying the powerful group
"has been over here lobbying furiously" because the amendment "breaks
the agreement that the White House made."
AARP, the powerful seniors' group that supports drug importation, has
notified senators that it will keep close track of votes on the Dorgan
amendment and will use the tally in its rankings of senior-friendly
lawmakers. AARP Senior Vice President David Sloane said Friday that
the legislation "would create a system for safe, legal importation of
prescription drugs from abroad" and would help lower drug costs.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the proposal would save the
government $19 billion over the next 10 years, and Dorgan estimated
that consumers would save $80 billion more. He pointed to vast price
differences in drugs made in the same factories; an equivalent amount
of the heartburn medication Nexium, for example, costs $36 in Spain
and $424 in the United States, he said.
"The pharmaceutical industry wouldn't be able to impose these price
increases because then you would have competition," Dorgan said on the
Senate floor last week. "Freedom equals competition in my judgment
here on this issue."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/14/AR2009121401409.html
h
"Palin'sAnusRimmer" <perry...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> "The heartburn medication Nexium, for example, costs $36 in Spain and
> $424 in the United States."
>
> But you just know most Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce, and the
> remnants of Bush's pro-industry, anti-consumer FDA will back
> drugmakers on this one!
>
> Now, who you seniors gonna get mad at?
> -----------------
Again, yet another reason to refuse to take prescription (or even OTC)
drugs.
I really don't get the need. Doctors don't treat diseases, they prescribe
drugs to combat symptoms. It makes them more money to treat symptoms forever
rather than to fix the problem. Another reason to avoid doctors.
When my mother moved back here (upstate NY) from NC after my father died,
the first thing I did was convince her to STOP taking all the crap she'd
been prescribed. She was in her mid-80s and taking diuretics, antacids,
blood pressure meds, arthritis meds and doG knows what else - all expensive
prescription meds. Sure, she had Medicare and teacher's retirement
insurance, so the drugs were free, but NO ONE needs to take all that crap.
Once she started eating a low-carb, low-wheat diet, ALL of her symptoms
resolved, including the high blood pressure and the joint pain!
There is NO WAY I would EVER take prescription drugs on a regular basis.
Sure, when I get a tick bite I'll take anti-biotics for two weeks, but take
meds everyday forever? No freakin' way.
3877
> "Palin'sAnusRimmer" <perry...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> "The heartburn medication Nexium, for example, costs $36 in Spain and
>> $424 in the United States."
>>
>> But you just know most Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce, and the
>> remnants of Bush's pro-industry, anti-consumer FDA will back
>> drugmakers on this one!
>>
>> Now, who you seniors gonna get mad at?
>
>> -----------------
> Again, yet another reason to refuse to take prescription (or even OTC) drugs.
What a terminal fuckwit.
>
> I really don't get the need. Doctors don't treat diseases, they
> prescribe drugs to combat symptoms. It makes them more money to treat
> symptoms forever rather than to fix the problem. Another reason to
> avoid doctors.
You're always free to die.
> When my mother moved back here (upstate NY) from NC after my father
> died, the first thing I did was convince her to STOP taking all the
> crap she'd been prescribed. She was in her mid-80s and taking
> diuretics, antacids, blood pressure meds, arthritis meds and doG
> knows what else - all expensive prescription meds. Sure, she had
> Medicare and teacher's retirement insurance, so the drugs were free,
> but NO ONE needs to take all that crap.
What a terminal fuckwit.
> Once she started eating a low-carb, low-wheat diet, ALL of her
> symptoms resolved, including the high blood pressure and the joint pain!
> There is NO WAY I would EVER take prescription drugs on a regular basis.
Great, when you end up with diabetes, you'll die.
h
"3877" <38...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:7oqtkrF...@mid.individual.net...
I low-carb, dipshit. I CAN'T get type II diabetes (which isn't a real
"disease" anyway, it's poor diet/lifestyle).
I don't have, therefore won't get type I diabetes (I'm in my mid-50s), so
you can just fuck off, moron. PLONK!!
h fucker
Wrong, as always. And pity about type I anyway.
(which isn't a real
> "disease" anyway, it's poor diet/lifestyle).
Wrong, as always.
You're always welcome to die early when you end up with high blood pressure too.
> I don't have, therefore won't get type I diabetes (I'm in my
> mid-50s), so you can just fuck off, moron. PLONK!!
Fat lot of good that will ever do you, fuckwit.
h
h
"h" <tmc...@searchmachine.com> wrote in message
news:hg9lm3$n0s$1...@aioe.org...
On retrospect, I think Rod Speed morphed, yet again. Soooo boring.
STEPHEN
Don Klipstein
Then how do carnivores that eat too much all-low-carb get type II
diabetes? I have a relative who studied veterinary medicine, and he says
it happens and it's a bit common.
He even gives an explanation of the pancreas not only secreting insulin,
but also secreting a substance used for metabolizing fat on a systemic
level. Excessive fat intake can stress the pancreas, and those who
get type II diabetes mostly just eat too many calories of all forms.
(When the pancreas conks out from being stressed by fat, there is
another metabolic pathway for metabolizing fat that individual cells do on
their own.)
BTW, I have a close friend who made a dietary change and increased
exercise after getting a heart attack. He went from pudgy to lean (lost
30 pounds), reduced his total cholesterol, improved is LDL/HDL ratio and
more than halved his triglycerides. He reduced intake of all forms of
calories, though only slightly reducing intake of carbs. He reduced the
others more, and fat the most.
I would give more credibility to his cardiologist than to someone
advocating dump all the medicines and take on a diet that I sense has
pushing in a way where I look for "follow the money".
- Don Klipstein (d...@misty.com)
zeez
There are lives at stake here, and the family who needs medication to
save their son or daughter can care less for the CEO's wish for gold
trim on his Bentley. Companies that try to pull this shit should have
all of their assets seized and the proposers inprisoned.
Sid9
"zeez" <blinking...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1ed3fd7f-7891-4b3a...@b2g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
Sad to say Americans believe the slick ads they see on TV.
So they think big pharma is the cats meow and that no one else in the
world can do anything right.
Prescription medicines may be the only product you buy that you can't
return for a refund when they are defective and fail to do what was
promised in the ad.
Slartibartfast
"STEPHEN" <wi...@matthehonk.com> wrote in message
news:7os9k2F...@mid.individual.net...