When it comes to the topic of prescription drugs being regulated, most of us will readily agree that this is a big concern for many Americans. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question of why do Americans pay some of the highest prices for prescription drugs compared to other countries. Whereas some are convinced that these high costs are set solely for the fact of the amount of money spent on producing these drugs, others maintain that there is an opportunity for medication prices to be regulated and also an opportunity to allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceuticals and possibly help bring down those high prices . I agree that prescription drugs should be regulated because there are many people that are victimized …show more content…
Research companies believe if the drug has a higher effective rate than it should be priced at a higher percentage. Which sounds unfair, especially if there is not much competition in the market with any medications with similar effects. As an example, Lipitor, a drug used for high cholesterol, was set to $5 per pill, but once it received competition from other companies producing medication with the same benefits the price dropped down to .31 cents per pill (Why Are Prescription Drugs So Expensive?). If there is nothing else in the market similar, that gives the drug companies the opportunity to take advantage of the prices set for a pharmaceutical. Another example would be drugs prescribed to cancer patients. There are many situations in which a cancer patient uses many different treatments with the same outcome and each share the same effective rate, but still has no choice but to use all of the drugs because each drug stops working for them after a certain amount of time. Some patients will go without treatment because of their incapability to pay for such high priced medications. Uwe Reinhardt, a health economist at Princeton University points out that, “The Food and Drug Administrationprotects pharmaceutical companies from competition by prohibiting rival products from coming onto the market for five to seven years after a drug is approved”. Reinhardts point is that this procedure gives patients an even harder time finding a drug with similar benefits for a much lower price (Why Are Prescription Drugs So Expensive?). So when pharmaceutical groups use effective rates as an excuse, it seems like they don't consider broader situations. Also, they might not consider the people that do not receive help from insurers like Medicare or Medicaid and have to pay for most of their medications out of pocket, since the ones