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 93254336Weapons Of MasturbationPremium
join:2001-10-20
kudos:1 | Does it really matter who fleeces you? From the article:
At the center of the shadow market are the "diverters" -- armies of little-known brokers who illegally gain control of discounted medicines intended for nursing homes, hospices and AIDS clinics. Those drugs are supposed to be sold only to small pharmacies that serve those facilities and have no retail business. In return for favorable prices from drug manufacturers -- as much as 80 percent off -- the pharmacies must enter into contracts pledging not to resell those drugs on the open market. For that reason, they are also known as "closed-door pharmacies."
[...]
The diverters take the discounted drugs, mark up the prices and rapidly move them to small wholesalers who add another markup and sell to other wholesalers. In some cases, pharmaceuticals may change hands six or more times, going from state to state.
No one knows how big the drug diversion market is. State and federal investigators say losses easily amount to billions of dollars annually.
Losses to whom? The three "master" pharmaceutical distributors in the United States? The manufacturers themselves? Ultimately, the patient gets fleeced, regardless of the path the medication took from the manufacturer to the local pharmacy. Funny how this reminds me of the drug lords in the 'hood getting a bit uppity when a rival moves in on their turf.
One tidbit that you probably won't read about in this series of articles (and that most patients are completely unaware of) is the apparent price-fixing of prescription medications. If you examine the prices for similar brand-name medications in a given class of pharmaceuticals (e.g. lipid-lowering agents, antidepressants, etc.), you'll frequently find that the monthly cost between the different drugs varies less than 5%. Any one manufacturer could easily corner the market (at least temporarily) by drastically reducing the price of their medication, but that never happens. Curious, don't you think?
- Dan
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"Be Queen of Canada for a day -- Ask me how!" | | |
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| Dan,
The 'three "master" pharmaceutical distributors in the United States' have absolutely nothing to do with the prices of drugs. The prices are set by the manufacturers, who I agree are guilty of at least tacit collusion.
They do lower prices all the time and these cuts are matched within days by other manufacturers. There seem to be rules about how much the price will go down and when.
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What are the facts, and to how many decimal places ... facts are your only chance. Get the facts! -- Lazarus Long | |
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