Prescription drugs - against free markets?

I'm a little confused. Are you saying that the high price of prescription drugs in the U.S. is not the real reason people are driven to seek their meds at lower prices from other countries?

R&D and manufacturing of the medicines is very costly, much more expensive than R&D of the computer software, and high prices reflect these expenses. In order to protect interests of the patients that cannot afford buying expensive life-saving medications, I would propose the following:

• Subsidizing prices of the life-saving medicines from both federal and local budgets; subsidies should be differentiated in accordance to the patients' income.
  
• Imposing low duties on the imported generic drugs
  

Price regulation of the new patented drugs may affect ability of the pharmaceutical industries to develop new medicaments.

I don't mean to speak for you, mamajuana, but bn, I think mj is saying that the high price of prescription drugs is exactly the reason why people are driven to seek their meds as lower prices from other countries. The issue is the affordability of their health care. The bottom line for them is their health and lives.

What David Gollader is arguing, aside from safety issues which are secondary to the argument, is that drug importation limits lassie faire in the United States for the drug companies. His point is that drug importation is contrary to capitalism (or to use the politically correct euphemism, free market system) because the drugs would be imported from countries that have centralized (read: SOCIALIST) systems. The issue is the industry's risk-reward ratio, which is negatively correlational. The lower the reward, the higher the risk, and subsequently, the lower the willingness to take that risk in researching and producing drugs. Are the lower profits (rewards) obtained through a socialist system worth the risk involved in manufacturing drugs? His approach would be to allow lassie faire for the drug industry, and let people deal with the industry's demands for maximum profits by taking responsibility for their own health care and medical budgets, which he says is part of an alternative approach to drug importation that is, admittedly difficult and complex. The bottom line for the drug industry is the pharm. corps' profit margin.

He refers to drug importation as a free lunch.

Those are resonable suggestions, steissd.

That from the venerable Pat Oliphant.

It was this last sentence in the first paragraph of Mama's post that had me confused. She talks about the price gouging and price controls and then says he never gets close to the real reason for seeking meds at lower prices.

So I was just wondering what other real reason would there be? I can think of one being access to those drugs not yet approved by the FDA but widely available in other countries. Are there others?

Accessability is one, affordability is another There really are people who have to choose between fod and meds, or halve their dosages to make them last.

Amd maybe a little ethics, too. No pharma has yet suffered a loss in the market, or had financial disasters. So if other countries can sell these meds for far lower prices, and still make money, what's hapening here? No regulations, no controls - good for profit, bad for the general public.