The U.S. is the only country that allows ads for prescription drugs on TV

I believe Australia do as well BUT with more restrictions.



Hollowmen had an episode about it.
1:40 onwards

 

You're saying the drug companies would intentionally shoot themselves in the foot and essentially kill their business. NOT. LIKELY.

 

My comments were factual. Advertising prescription drugs is a very bad idea for the public. It induces some to do things they shouldn't do.

The 1st Amendment already has limitations applied to it and the S.C. said amendments can be limited.

 

That's an authoritarian position.

 

Personally, I am strongly in favor of it.

First Amendment issues for starters, but I suffer from extreme nerve damage in my lower legs that renders me unable to walk. There is no drug for that. Only PT and time, and there's no guarantee my nerves will ever heal. But, if a new drug hits the market tomorrow that will fix me, I want to know about it pronto.

 

Think of it like the oil business. At $120 per barrel, oil companies are pumping as much oil as possible and spending billions on finding new sources. But at $40 per barrel, they stop investing money and the entire industry slows down.

When drug companies can get market value for their product, they invest billions in new (experimental) drugs and sell as much product as they can. If every nation had strict price controls, the companies’ ROI would be in the tank and everything would slow down.

 

As a libertarian/conservative, I don’t like talk about speech codes on college campuses or preventing drug companies from advertising. We’re moving in one direction on free speech and it’s away from the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

I’m convinced we’re headed down the road of all those middle school and high school books we read ... “1984”, “Brave New World”, “Animal Farm”, “Fahrenheit 451”. It’s all going to hit the fan in a couple centuries. There will be a civil war, or some kind of struggle.

 

I need to proof read better. An Orphan disease is something like Epilepsy or various hereditary syndromes that are extremely rare and no one much spends a lot of time hunting for cures because there are so few victims that you never recover the developement costs no matter what what you charge. And again most of that profitability has to do with generic drugs in which there is comparatively no development costs.

 

Find a doctor whom you have confidence in.

 

Ohhhhhh. OK. Market manipulation to get the highest prices possible. Now I see. So that is a great reason for nationalizing both the oil industry and the drug industry in addition to the banking sector.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/473429/top-global-pharmaceutical-companies-gross-margin-values/

 

Not even the best doctor in the country knows everything about everything.

 

Profit is the goal (and lifeblood) of any business. Without it, you’re out of business and your competitors step in to compete for the customer that you failed.

This isn’t difficult.

 

P

no they buy the patents from the universities that have done the basic research

 

There is profit and then there is obscene price gouging

 

I dunno there is always "Doctor Google"

 

TV is a great way to get a general feel for the pulse of the zombies no matter where you go to. However, just because we get innundated with prescription drug commercials doesn't mean we're well educated in pharmaceuticals. We just know that we'd love to be like those rich healthy old people playing golf and winning footraces with our grandchildren, and if taking placebocine is going to give me that spring in my step, then damnit I'm gonna demand to get a prescription for placebocine!!!!

 

Right, but a good specialist will keep up on developments affecting his area of work. Search highly rated hospitals. I found the best in Oregon and then I found the best doctor there. Prior to that I had some pretty bad ones.

 

Yeah but that wasn't the subject of the conversation. Plus there is "reasonable profit" and then there is "out-of-control greed".

 

Nonsense that's true for about five percent of them.

 

When was the last time you had a doctor proactively call you to tell you about a newly available treatment for an ongoing problem of yours? In my experience, that's the second week before never.

 

The second pill off the assembly line might only cost $0.10 to make. But the first one cost $1,000,000,000. If they can't make that up, plus a good ROI, there is no point.

 

The normal market forces (supply and demand) make sure there is the greatest benefit to the most people. Once you install price controls, it skews the market ... resulting in shortages. And there are always unintended consequences when government interferes. You've probably read some of Milton Friedman's work. If not, I highly recommend it.

 

You're right, but when I go in for a 6-month or annual check, he tells me if there is anything new.

 

"Pharmaceutical profit margins vary widely, from less than zero to more than 40 percent, depending on the size of the company and whether it’s a powerhouse like Pfizer or Novartis or a startup still in the research and development phase. "

"Pharmaceutical companies have some of the highest profit margins in the world"
https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/average-profit-margin-pharmaceuticals-20671.html


Gross profit margin of top pharmaceutical companies:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/473429/top-global-pharmaceutical-companies-gross-margin-values/