Essay on The Rise in the Price of Prescription Drugs

A terrible incident happened in Tennessee in 1937 when a drug called Elixir Sulfanilamide was mislabeled and contained toxic quantities of antifreeze that killed over 100 people (FDA's Origin & Functions - FDA History). Before this event, Congress debated substituting the 1906 Act and this instance in Tennessee drove Congress to approve the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 that provided an updated set of standards. Unlike before when the government had to disprove a drug was effective, the new act stated that drugs had to be proven effective before being sold. It not only replaced the Pure Food and Durg Act, but the Sherley Amendment as well (Centennial Edition of FDA Consumer).

The Food and Drugs Act of 1906: This worthless, mislabeled and dangerous drugs led to 1st drug laws with an accurate labeling law added in 1912

The first Pure Food and Drug Act was put into action by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. The act was passed to prevent the manufacture, sale, or transportation of misbranded or harmful food, drugs, medicines, and liquors. Due to this act the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came to be. The FDA is now responsible for the testing of all foods and drugs for human consumption and the label warnings on them as well.

The purpose of the Pure Food and Drug Act was to protect the public against contamination of food and from products identified as healthful without scientific support. The muckrakers had successfully heightened public awareness of safety issues develop from careless food preparation procedures and the increasing number of drug addiction from patent medicines, both accidental and conscious. President Theodore Roosevelt began the process by ensuring the passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, which was followed by the Pure Food and Drug Act, passed in 1906 to become effective at the start of 1907. (Us

On June 30, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act. He began to enforce this act by also passing the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. The person responsible for introducing the act is Sen. Weldon Heyburn. The act is sure to benefit the health of Americans in the present and future.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most powerful and greedy industries in our country, with a goal to make as large a profit as possible, at the expense of the sick.

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).

This put pressure on congress and finally the Pure Food and Drug Act law was

The first law that was passed was the Pure food and drug act of 1906. This law was passed to protect the public from adulterated food products does meet federal or state standards. The pure food and drug act was amended 3 times, once in 1912, again in 1913 and on last time in 1923. The muckrakers finally successfully made it finally with public awareness with food safety and drug addiction. In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt began the journey for the Mean Inspection Act which was shortly followed by the Food and Drug

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed by Congress – along with the Meat Inspection Act – on June 30, 1906, then took effect on January 7, 1907 (Lerner 670). This act prevented manufacturers from selling mislabeled products, contaminated food with unsafe ingredients, and fixes dirty conditions in the food industry that was brought to the attention by journalists and authors (Lerner 670; “Pure Food” 1081). This regulation strongly enforces how food and drug products “were packaged, labeled, sold…in the United States” (“Pure Food”

Prescription drug prices are on the rise in the United States. Currently, the United States does not implement a price control on prescription drugs. Every day the supply and demand for prescription drugs fluctuates. Pharmaceutical companies produce drugs that are necessary for survival. Therefore, it is necessary for research and development to continue in the United States. Those suffering the effects of exorbitant prices must do so until a generic form of a prescription drug is produced. Once approved by the FDA, new drugs will make their appearance on the market and patients will no longer suffer financially. Until then, it is necessary for pharmaceutical companies to price their drugs based on the idea of supply and demand. This produces the profit used to fund research. Price controls discourage innovation. If a price control were set in place, of course the price of prescription drugs would decrease. However, the development of new drugs decreases with it. Today’s generation would benefit from lower prices, while future generations would suffer from the loss of drug innovation.

Once the medication is available to the general population, then there is the hypocrisy that comes with dealing with pharmaceutical companies. Many believe that pharmaceutical companies are in the business of disease management not healing and curing people. Ethically and morally withholding or offering the price of medication at such a high price it is not feasible to general working class individuals in need of the medication. Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (CITED), recently raised the price of Thiola from $1.50 to $30 a pill. Causing many to argue the ethical or moral aptitude of those working at “Big Pharma” and where there interest truly lies? With little to no regulation of profit and cost management those who have the ability to increase medication price, how do we really know what cures are available but beyond our financial

spends more on drugs? It’s true that in the U.S., as in many wealthy OECD countries, pharmaceutical spending has been declining in real terms. For some countries, this trend is explained by cuts in government spending in the wake of the Great Recession. In the U.S., much of this decline is explained by the fact that patents on a number of top drugs have expired, meaning they can be replaced by cheaper generics. This effect is expected to last another two or three years; after that, future trends in spending are harder to predict.

Prescription painkiller addiction and who is at fault for the abuse has become one of the new “hot topics”. There is a huge contradictory over who is at fault, the doctor prescribing the medication or the patient abusing it? Prescription drug abuse has become a worldwide problem. In order to get these medications, the users must have a prescription, which means a doctor must order them the drug. These prescription abusers are seeking out and demanding prescription painkillers in high doses in order to fulfill their craving of the drug. The most commonly abused prescriptions are opiates, depressants, and stimulants. Opiates are just basic painkillers. Opiates include Fentanyl, Hydrocodone, Oxycodone, Percocet, Morphine, etc. Depressants apply to your central nervous system; they are used to cure depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Pentobarbital sodium, Valium, and Xanax are typically the most common drugs used in depressants. Stimulants help to treat ADHD and narcolepsy. Ritalin, Adderall, and Dexedrine all occur in stimulating drug prescriptions. These medications have begun to substitute for the illicit street drugs in some cases. This problem has caused pharmaceutical drug overdoses to now be one of the leading causes of death in the nation.

According to, http://www.toxicology.org/gp/fda.asp, the Society of Toxicology website, in 1937 the Massengill pharmaceutical company dispersed Elixir Sulfanilamide. This drug was prescribed generally to anyone who had symptoms of strep throat. Elixir Sulfanilamide contains diethylene glycol, which is a chemical equivalent of antifreeze. There were 107 documented deaths, involving many children, because of the lack in regulations. The Pure Food and Drug Act was deemed to insufficient to protect the public. This tragedy was the critical motivation for the creation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.