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The rise in drug prices is causing the public to ask why this is so and why there isn’t anything being done, or what the reason could be for sky high prices. Some of the reasons include pharmaceutical companies setting their drug prices

The twenty-first century has seen pharmaceutical companies grow in unprecedented size and strength. Due to the unprecedented growth the larger pharmaceutical companies have gained leverage and power in the prescription drug industry, but they lack innovation to market and they seek ways to help the business continue to increase its profits. The pharmaceutical industry was once ethically sound and was a valuable player in the development of human health. However, overtime with the lack of innovation pharmaceutical companies are becoming an unethical market that exploits patients, doctors and anyone else it can to increase its profitability. With eyes only on profitability this can create a hazard for patients because there

Annually, the US spends $300 billion dollars on pharmaceutical drugs. This is due to the over-diagnosing of certain conditions. Everyday, Americans are exposed to an enormous amount of advertisements for medications of all kinds. For example, 1 in 10 Americans are taking

Everybody reaches out of pocket to pay for different prescription drugs. Parents for children, elderly for health conditions, and pet owners for pets, but there is one extensive concern; the price and outcomes. Transiently, it may be common for someone to come out of pocket for some prescriptions, but when people draw out of pocket every time just to pick up a prescription drug, it becomes annoying and upsetting. Pharmaceutical companies like CVS and Walgreens collect over $1,000,000 dollars just from gouging people for medications. According to David Belk (M.D.), Pharmacies buy medication in mass from pharmaceutical corporations and suppliers, then sell for a profit. What everyone is trying to ask the companies though is why. Why would a top-producing company like CVS or Walgreens sell expensive medications to a group of people like the elderly for profit?

Frech cited several keys to the high costs here including marketing by pharmaceutical companies; the incredible number (around 20 percent) of the people who work in the medical field but never come into contact with any patient and the lack of wellness programs and poor lifestyle

Lynas, K. (2010, November/December). Canadian pharmacists journal: Universal pharmacare could cut up to $10.7 billion from Canada’s annual drug bill. Notes, 143(6), 262. doi: 10.3821/1913-701X-143.6.262

U. S. citizens pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world. This is an injustice that must be corrected. The "U.S. forbids the import of prescription drugs by anyone other than the original U.S. manufacturer, and even then only when the drugs meet all the approval requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)" (Barlett & Steele, 2004). Prescription drug prices are outrageously high in the United States because of the influence of advertising on consumer purchasing, the misleading statements by pharmaceutical companies about the cost of research and development of new drugs, the manipulation of patent laws, the antiquated laws regarding importation of

In fact, we are likely underestimating how badly we are being price gouged by some drug makers—after all, a

The rising cost of prescriptions in the United States has become a huge threat to patients and to owners of hospitals. Most pharmacy companies are buying drugs that are undervalued, then they are raising the prices up to gain more profit. Even some companies admit to rising the cost up 212% (AHA, 2015). The more the cost of prescriptions go up, the greater chance there is that people will give up on taking the drugs and just suffer through or buy over the counter medicines. The purpose of this paper is the inform people of the affects and consequences of these drugs beginning to rise in costs. Lives can

This results in people not being able to receive the necessary healthcare, especially since majority of tests done a person are not needed. Many of the times when doctors order tests to be run, they are aware that the test is unnecessary but they need to be sure to cover themselves in the unfortunate case of something happening. Other people are also pressuring doctors in running tests to increase their RVU, unit of billable activity per hour. If a doctors RVU is not high enough they are pressured into running more tests and seeing more patients, rather than actually helping the patient. The drug industry only amounts to approximately 12 percent of the total cost of healthcare in America. The total sales of the top five drug companies in 2005 were 222 billion dollars. Drug companies state that the reason their products are so expensive is so they can fund the research and development of the drugs; however, only 32 billion dollars were spent on research and development, 71 billion dollars on marketing, and 39 billion dollars in profit. The facts listed above are all contributing factors as to why healthcare is so expensive, but the most significant reason healthcare is expensive is due to the cost of the paperwork.

Health care costs are extraordinarily high and keep getting higher. Individuals in the US that do not have access to medical services are running as high as 43.4 million and This number has grown by over a million in each of the last three years. (AFSCME, n.d.). The rise of prescription drug

The rise in costs of prescription medicines affects all sectors of the health care industry, including private insurers, public programs, and patients. Spending on prescription drugs continues to be an important health care concern, particularly in light of rising pharmaceutical costs, the aging population, and increased use of costly specialty drugs. In recent history, increases in prescription drug costs have outpaced other categories of health care spending, rising rapidly throughout the latter half of the 1990s and early 2000s. (Kaiseredu.org, 2012).

The Pharmaceutical industry has been in the spotlight for decades due to the fact that they have a reputation for being unethical in its marketing strategies. In The Washington Post Shannon Brownlee (2008) states, “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow.” This honorable statement is completely lost in today’s world of pharmaceutical marketing tactics. These tactics are often deceptive and biased. Big Pharma consistently forgets their moral purpose and focuses primarily on the almighty dollar. Big Pharma is working on restoring their reputation by reforming their ethical code of conduct.

A lot of people, particularly the patients who need them, are beginning to wonder why American drug prices are so high. It makes sense why the pharmaceutical companies are selling at the prices they do: they are a business; and they want to, above all else, make a profit. But the real question is: what are all of the

His study shows that research is actually not a large part in pharmaceutical spending. In fact, the majority of the money actually goes towards funding marketing budgets and realizing profits. His research also shows that almost all drug companies do not spend more than twenty percent of their funds on research. When it comes to profit, some drug and biotech companies are receiving fifty percent profits which is twice the average nine percent average profit margin. Another reason for drug prices being so high is because drug manufacturers in the United States set their own prices, and that is not normal for other countries in the world. For most other countries that have national health care programs, also have government entities that negotiate drug prices or decide to not sell drugs that may have unaffordable pricing. Sometimes state laws and other federal policies limit the generics ' abilities to keep costs down. For example, pharmacists in at least 26 states are required by law to get a patients consent before switching to a generic drug. This costs Medicaid around $19.8 million in 2006 for just one drug. Costs were running higher due to the fact that some pharmacists were not able to get the patient consent that they needed therefore Medicaid ended up having to pay for the costlier brand name drug even though a cheaper product was available.