Nobody says you have to buy Claritin but the company who makes the drug. If
they increase the price so high then take something else. Try benadryl which
is what I take. Don't take Benadryl and pay 15X higher for Claritin. You
have a right to take anything you want and you deserve price controls on
Claritin. I don't want to buy an Altima and want a Mercedes so I think they
should have price controls on Mercedes. They are much more expensive and
it's not fair. They should investigate how much the car actually costs to
make.
The fact that more people paying the drug costs "out of pocket" is totally
unfair. I think the work force should give pay raises to everybody so that
they can afford the drugs or better yet why not have the companies you work
for give you free food and housing so that you can then afford the new
drugs.
As far as buying in bulk, you are referring to the manufacturers of the drug
and buying in bulk does cheapen the price but it is not the responsibility
of the maker to sale as cheap as possible. It is up to the buyer of the drug
to find the cheapest price.
These are not dubious practices as they are what commerce is built on. It
applies to anything that we buy and sale.

First off if R and D is so cheap why doesn't third world countries invent on
drug developments?
If the drugs were developed with NIH or tax payer funded why does a private
company have a patent on the drug?  Do you mean that a researcher finds a
new drug in order to make money on it?
That is really hideous.
All the statins can cause serious damage in people and are very dangerous if
not monitored. The first thing somebody should do is try diet and have good
eating habits. I was put on Lipitor and it was very bad on my stomach and
stopped taking it. The next one I tried was fine and it was Baycol. Notice
they left off Baycol because it was taken off the market for serious
complications. I am now on Lescol and yes it is expensive. Anyone who says
that all statins are the same are idiots. It's not just one molecule and yes
one molecule makes all the difference in the world.
You call a patent a government hand-out? LOL
The government and university research gives away or sells the patent to
companies? You mean the government helps companies? Chrysler just paid back
it's government loan 7 years earlier than expected. The government only
helps out the drug companies and no others.
"unparalleled research output of American universities and the NIH. In other
words, it's not private enterprise that draws them here but the very
opposite-our publicly sponsored research enterprise.
"Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this
industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might
stand in its way, including the US Congress, the FDA, academic medical
centers, and the medical profession itself."
Now you want it both ways in saying that it is great because of FDA, NIH,
American universities and now it is not great because they can't stop the
drug companies.
People depend on food, water and shelter for their lives and there is no
difference in terms of drugs. As stated people sometimes do not buy drugs
and use it on food instead. So what's more important? Food. Set price
controls on food first.
The rest is leftist junk. Really, Reagan, what else?
The model for the new drug policy is taken from Cuba. They have price
controls on everything. I hear that everyone there is happy.