Prescription drugs...why are they more expensive in America than Canada?

[krunchykrome]

Could someone please explain to me why prescription drugs are more expensive in America than they are in Canada? I understand that Americans are going to Canada to fill their prescriptions for cheaper prices, and I understand that the drug companies are trying to lobby the government to stop this, etc...but I don't know why the difference in the prices...

 

[arcenite]

taxes?

 

[krunchykrome]

I don't think it's taxes. The price differences are pretty significant.

 

[rival]

drug companies here can do it and get away with it, so they do...

its all about money

i think maybe canada regulates prices on these things? and the us govt doesnt care what drug co's charge for their stuff...so people get assraked

 

[krunchykrome]

drug companies here can do it and get away with it, so they do...

But why can the drug companies do it here and not in Canada. Why can they get away with it here and not in Canada?

 

[Huma]

Because we don't like seeing people suffer or die over a bit of money

 

[Anubis]

because HMOs are evil

 

[BornStar]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

drug companies here can do it and get away with it, so they do...

But why can the drug companies do it here and not in Canada. Why can they get away with it here and not in Canada?

I'm pretty sure it's actually a pantent deal. Anybody can produce and sell it in Canada and not be liable but they have a monopoly in the US. I'm not positive about this of course.

 

[Ladies Man]

why? cus the insurance companys in america will pay for it... so they jack up the price... canada pays the bills for prescriptions and they set a price, and won't pay anymore... hence the lower rate... america picks up the tab for keeping other countries prices low.

 

[yllus]

There's one big buyer for prescription meds up here, the government. That's a lot of buying power - naturally they can negotiate a pretty decent deal.

 

[jpeyton]

The American consumers ultimately end up footing the bill, either by paying for their prescriptions, the rising cost of health insurance, increasing copayments, deductibles, etc.

And why? Because pharmeceuticals have tremendous power in political circles. They wrote the book on lobbying.

EDIT: Pharmeceuticals set their prices as high as the market will burden. In India, you can buy the same prescription meds for pennies on the dollar, and they still make money off of them. But they can make a lot more money in America.

There was a local company who placed orders with Canadian pharmacies for US customers, but they were recently shut down after the pharmaceuticals saw a chance for their profit in America to be degraded.

 

[Blieb]

heh ... are you all silly?

FDA ... it costs more in research, testing, fees, legal, etc to get drug approved ... and guess who they pass the savings on to?

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Because pharmaceutical companies in America have paid for the best politicians money can buy, thereby insuring that they can gouge us however they like.

 

[Xionide]

Because they can.

 

[Riskhk]

It's cause of the FDA. US has the most strictest testing protocol to get a drug approved. To develop a drug and pass inspection in the U.S., it costs 600 million dollars. As a result of U.S. having the most strictest protocols, when drug companies produce drugs in other countries, they don't have to prove that their drugs are safe with further tests.

 

[SuperTool]

It's because Canadians have realized that drug companies have monopoly pricing on patented medications, and if you don't cap those prices, companies will squeeze every dollar they can out of consumers, insurance companies, and governments, because if a doctor prescribes you a medicine and there is no generic alternative, you are going to have to pay whatever the drug company wants or not get the medicine. Americans keep pretending that the drug sector is just like any other sector with competitive pricing, which is a pipe dream, because if a doctor prescribes you a patented medication, there is no competition, and if it's a lifesaving medicine, you'll pay whatever it takes, so supply and demand does not really drive the prices down.

 

[C'DaleRider]

There are a lot of reasons why Canadians pay less for prescription drugs than Americans do:

There is the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), Canada's price regulator created in 1987, that controls patented drug prices;

There are the exchange rate variations: for years America's relatively strong dollar made drugs overseas seem particularly cheap;

The cost of living in Canada is lower than in the U.S. ..... Canada's economy has suffered in recent years, with the currency losing nearly a quarter of its value over the last decade. (Even worse is the Mexican economy; poor people in poor countries have less money to spend on everything.) As a result, many goods are cheaper in Canada than in the U.S.;

Canadians also benefit from less, and less expensive, product liability litigation. Some economists estimate that one-third to one-half of the drug price differential between the two countries is due to the higher cost of lawsuits in America.

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: Ladies Man
why? cus the insurance companys in america will pay for it... so they jack up the price... canada pays the bills for prescriptions and they set a price, and won't pay anymore... hence the lower rate... america picks up the tab for keeping other countries prices low.

We have a winner. That'll be $59.99 / 100

 

[Mark R]

The main reason is that the US does not impose government regulation on the price of prescription drugs - many other countries do regulate costs to some extent.

Another major contributor is risk of litigation. As much as 50%-60% of drug retail price is actually set aside for a 'litigation fund' in case the manufacturer get sued due to side effects of the drug. In the US where the legal stakes are much higher than elsewhere in the world, the drug companies are forced to set aside more funds in order to protect themselves.

 

[Analog]

whatever the market can bear.