Prescription Drug Prices

By: Sterling Holt

Are prescription drug prices too high? Many Americans today believe so. They don't just believe the prices are too high, they also
believe that the pharmaceutical companies themselves are the ones to blame for the price gouging. Take this infographic for example,
according to the people polled, 73% of Americans believe that drug prices are simply unreasonable.

In this chart, prescription drug price changes are compared to directly to the inflation rate of the United States in recent years. As if
inflation wasn't bad enough, prescription drug prices are soaring higher and higher every year at a truly exponential rate. As you can
see simply from this data, drug companies are simply trying to make a profit.

Then the next few questions come to mind about prescription drug prices. How are they doing this? How is this legal? How do they get
away with such massive price increases every single year? I will do my best to answer these questions as this presentation goes on.

The United States has been increasing its spending on prescription drugs every year by a huge amount. Just in recent years from
2010-2014 there was a 58 BILLION dollar increase in spending on prescription drugs. And that is only a difference of four years.

So why are prices going up so fast you ask? Well simply put, pharmaceutical companies are in this business for one reason, and one
reason alone. Profit. Pharmaceuticals are considered one of the fine main industrial sectors in the United States along with Banks,
Carmakers, oil and gas, and the media. And among all of those, pharmaceuticals have the greatest profit margin.

Because of the ridiculous price hikes of prescription drugs, Americans are beginning to have to cut down on other costs in their lives in
order to afford the medication that they need to function in everyday life. Take this chart for example, explaining some of the many
ways Americans are cutting down on spending just to be able to afford these drugs.

Here is some statistics that compare ways people have tried to lower the cost of drugs depending on age. As you can see from the
chart above, the first thing people do is ask their doctor for a cheaper alternative when available. But when a cheaper alternative is not
available, unfortunately people have to take unhealthy measures such as not taking medication as prescribed.

Take the example of Martin Shkreli. After he founded the company Turing pharmaceuticals, he raised the price of a drug called
Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 PER PILL literally overnight. The public was outraged by this, and it was a pretty big story for a few
weeks. Even though this happened in 2015, Turing pharmaceuticals have not lowered the price of Daraprim.

As a result of completely legal price hikes like the drug Daraprim specifically, pharmaceutical companies have free range to do as they
please. Whether that means increasing a drug price at an exponential rate, or patenting a certain drug for 10 years so that they have
total control over the price. This is nothing new in America, and these pharmaceutical companies are making a killing off of Americans.

So what can be done? Well currently with the way our laws are written, not much. Pharmaceutical companies are literally granted a
legal monopoly over certain drugs for ten years or more. People in Government such as Sen. Bernie Sanders are on the front line
actively fighting against big pharma. There have been many proposals for bills to help litigate some of these problems, but they have
gained little traction because of the huge lobbying power of big pharma.

Works Cited

Kesselheim, Aaron S., Jerry Avorn, and Ameet Sarpatwari. "The High Cost Of Prescription Drugs In The United States: Origins And Prospects For Reform." JAMA: Journal Of The
American Medical Association 316.8 (2016): 858. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
Openshaw, Matthew S. "The Economics Of Prescription Drug Prices, Government Intervention, And The Importation Of Drugs From Canada." Nursing Economic$ 23.6 (2005):
307-311. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.
"Is There A Cure For High Drug Prices?." Consumer Reports 81.8 (2016): 52. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.