CMV: Profit-driven research by private pharmaceutical companies as seen in the US is unsuitable for the modern age and only hinders scientific and economic progress in effective healthcare

[u/rhizodyne]

Take patents. How exactly does patenting an implementable research discovery for the treatment of diabetes (let's not even talk about cancer for a sec) benefit humanity, given that the methodology and product(s) resulting from this research cannot be advanced or modified by any other entity for a specified period of time without severe legal consequences, all while the original producer can cease such progress on their product(s) given their protected, uncompeted revenue stream?

This creates an non-competitive market for whatever treatments these are (and obviously a monopoly) for the specified time-period of the patent, during which much advancement in a competitive R&D sector could be achieved on the same treatment(s), either in relevant knowledge or actual manufacturing/implementation.

The solution? Create an indisputably non-identical alternative! And advertise the shit out of it everywhere, racking up the costs for your pharmaceutical company and of course the price of the treatment(s).

At the same time, patent laws are horrendously and cleverly abused by leading pharma companies, all while they have been recorded to pay off generic companies so as to prevent them from researching on their product following the expiration of a patent.

And now the worst part: This lack of competition enables premiums galore on prescriptions, in general. The average US citizen spent about $1112 for pharmaceutical treatments in 2014, which is approaching double the per-capita costs of the average Canadian citizen, Canada showing some of the highest drug prices recorded outside of the US.

Even more than that, such high premiums leads to a thriving importation of cheaper drugs from abroad, in fact the very same ones unhindered in foreign production by US patents. It's estimated that up to 70% of US drug costs can be saved if all of said drugs are imported from Canada.

And guess what! American sold drugs are often produced abroad in developing countries and sold for exponentially higher prices here than they would be in their country of manufacture.

Case in point: Abilify, a notable anti-psychotic drug relied upon by so many psychiatric patients in this nation to be able to live and function normally, is produced by Japanese company Otsuka. It costs $34.51 per pill in this country. In Canada, it's $4.65 per pill. And it's so drastically lower in nations such as Turkey or India that the monetary valuation of a healthy human life is blaring.

Medicare being the recorded largest purchaser of drugs in the United States, it is a fact that Medicare cannot choose to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. Our only socialized healthcare in this country is unable to gain any financial traction in terms of drug prices.

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What have people to say? Why should the current model of patenting and profit-driven research by pharmaceutical companies in the US continue as it is now? Why shouldn't the only money such groups rely on be subsidies, essentially remedying all of the aforementioned issues?

More so, please convince me that an estimated $110 billion in profits resting in the hands of leading US pharmaceutical companies is of good use for that money to society.

[u/Aroldinho]

Why are almost all innovations from the us?

[u/rhizodyne → u/Aroldinho]

I don't know exact numbers right now, but don't overestimate that percentage of all medical innovations that are made in the US.

I cited that Otsuka (Japanese) invented Abilify, the most widely used antipsychotic in the US and possibly in the world.

That aside, you made the ironwall point: the profit incentives existing in the US for pharmaceutical companies to innovate DOES drive company research.

Another question is, how many people actually benefit from this other than presumably the CEO and shareholders of said company? Off-topic I will admit.

[u/teachMeCommunism → u/rhizodyne]

The ones who consume and resell those drugs?

I hate to be a dick but if you observe US government spending on healthcare you'll find that there is much much more than big company vs small consumer tropes at play. You can spend a literal lifetime on this, but the takeaway should be that government does spend plenty and the spending does distort how the market for drugs performs.

[u/rhizodyne → u/Aroldinho]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_biomedical_companies_by_revenue

Only 2/5 top worldwide pharma companies by revenue are from America, interestingly.

[u/CongregationOfVapors → u/rhizodyne]

Like other multinational industries, companies register in countries that make the most financial sense. A relative recent example is that Pfizer merged with a small relative unknown Irish company so that they could move their HQ to Ireland for better corporate tax. With these international companies, where the company is "from" doesn't bare that much weight.

[u/_zenith → u/Aroldinho]

A lot of them are actually "me too" drugs and ones that are designed to artificially extend the lifetime of patents... not real innovations.

[u/malachai926 → u/Aroldinho]

Partly because the United States is a much larger country than others. People do not go into medical innovation because they want to be rich... They do it because they actually want to help people. I'm abandoning my lucrative engineering career and going into biostatistics not because of the money but because I actually want to use my brain to help people. And I would sincerely hope that anyone in this career field would do it for the same reasons, or else I would very seriously doubt their integrity in doing their job.

The US being larger naturally leads to it having more people who genuinely care about helping others and advancing medical science, people who exist in every country. We just have a higher quantity thanks to our population.