Whoever would have guessed that taking away the government's ability to bargain for the lowest price for drugs…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:45 PM Permalink

…would cause the price of medications vital to our seniors to rise by 7.8% or MORE?

See this article from The Huffington Post business section:

The pharmaceutical industry has been a frequent target in the current presidential campaign, but that hasn't stopped it from continuing to aggressively raise the prices of prescription drugs.

Pharmaceutical companies increased wholesale prices for the 50 top-selling branded drugs by an average of 7.82% in 2007, after increases of 6.73% and 6.22% in the previous two years, according to Delta Marketing Dynamics Inc., a health-care marketing research company. The most recent increase is almost double the overall U.S. economy's 4.1% annual inflation rate last year.

Some individual drugs had double-digit price increases over three years. GlaxoSmithKline PLC raised the price of antidepressant Wellbutrin XL by 44.5% from 2005 to 2007. Sanofi-Aventis SA raised the price of sleep drug Ambien 70.1%. Shire PLC increased the price of its attention-deficit disorder medication, Adderall XR, by 33.5%, while the price of cholesterol-fighting Lipitor -- the world's top-selling drug, which brought in roughly $13 billion last year for Pfizer Inc. -- rose 16%.

We need to allow Big Pharma regulate itself so they can earn a decent living.

Labels: big pharmaceutical, capitalism, conspiracy, consumerism, corporate greed, humor, hypocrisy, snark