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Pharmaceutical Cost Pricing

Decent Essays

Ocean Watts
Professor Sanderson
ENG 1123
24 October 2016
Price Gouging in the Pharmaceutical Industry Every year in the United States millions of Americans go without taking their prescribed medications. This is not because they simply do not wish to take their medications or they forget their daily doses but rather something more heartbreaking. A multi-billion-dollar company won’t allow these Americans to take their medications. In this case the company has not recalled the medications or sent out representatives to retrieve the medications from these individuals. You may ask yourself why these people are going without their medications if there is no risk involved. Well the reason is that these pharmaceutical companies raise their prices …show more content…

This is the practice of taking a pill that is about twice the dose of a pill you should be taking and splitting this pill in half. In most cases the cost of a pill does not vary much per dose therefore a patient can be prescribed a dose that is double what that patient would need. Then with a pill splitter the patient can then basically cut the pill in half and take one half and save the other half for the next dose. So, this is essentially two pills for the price of one and can save a lot of money. Although this is a good method of saving money on medications this will not work for every medication. Also of course each patient should consult with their pharmacist or physician before trying to do pill splitting. This is a good method for saving money but if done improperly there can be negative consequences. This may seem all too obvious but the only pills that should be split are pills that are already scored. Any pill that has an enteric coating, are long acting or time-release, or are to be taken more than once a day are not recommended to be split. Time-release or long acting pills ae not recommended to be split because they could become too strong because cutting the pill destroys the time release effect which can lead to an overdose. Drugs that are to be taken more than once a day are not recommended to be split because the pill will not always be able to be cut precisely …show more content…

Although this is not a popular concept in the United States this method is used in various countries around the world. Many critics argue that if it were implemented in the United States, it would have a negative effect on the pharmaceutical industry. It is believed that this would cause investment and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry to cease thus compromising the health of future patients. Although there is always a negative risk associated with such a drastic change it would stop pharmaceutical CEOs from running the industry as if it were a hedge fund operation. There is the high publicized case of Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical CEO who raised the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat AIDs patients, from $13.50 to $750 a tablet

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