kat
Very interesting article. I realize this varies from the theme of this thread, but it's no surprise that such a large volume of US prescription drug business is going to Canada. I realize that these drug companies are shouldering the high costs of R&D for the products that are money makers as well as many others that aren't so profitable or that are "dead ends", and that the very survival of any company depends on making a profit for the stockholders, but at some point the burden can only be passed to the American consumer so far. People love a good deal and will go to extremes to take advantage of it, and ordering drugs from Canada is no extreme at all.
You do generally get what you pay for, but I am willing to bet that Canadian GlaxoSmithKline or Pfizer products are nearly identical to those marketed in the US, and are as safe as their US counterpart products. I do stop to consider, as I said, that R&D costs are high, and that we need to be willing to pay for the costs of developing these very helpful products, but if these drugs are much, much cheaper from Canada, it is no surprise that consumers go there. I don't know what profit margin these companies enjoy, nor do I know what, if any, huge salaries and/or bonuses that the upper management of these companies get, if any, but I find it extremely hard to feel guilty about buying Canadian products if they are much cheaper, especially a necessity like drugs. I begrudge no one profit as fruit for their labors, but I would voluntarily purchase these less expensive products from Canadian sources in a heartbeat, and I would feel extorted if I was prevented from doing so without valid reason. Sometimes I feel like these drug companies know that they have a product that people MUST have, that they enjoy a hell of lobby on Capitol Hill, and that we are at their mercy until the patent expires and drugs get more in line to what they actually cost to produce (and STILL be profitable)...it's like, "gouge 'em while we can". At what point does their R&D get definitely reimbursed and the gouging start, and why should drug companies enjoy protections against foreign competition that other industries with shallower pockets don't? I like to buy American, and would love to limit my purchases to them solely, but it's hard for me to justify it in this instance. Why, I wonder, are any Canadian pharmaceutical products from the same parent company cheaper? The R&D for any one company is a one for all thing...you don't have to discover and patent one Viagra for America and a different one for Canada. And, as far as Canadian drugs are concerned, I really wouldn't think that they are any way inferior to America's as far as QC goes as opposed to, let's say, drugs from Pakistan. I just wonder how much I should feel obligated, if at all, to purchase American over Canadian drugs with the huge cost disparity that evidently exists...I am sure that I purchase many non-drug imports every day that I don't even realize.
Simply put, WHY are American drugs so much higher than Canadian, and why should Americans shoulder the vast majority of development burdens, if that is why? The FDA is a wide reaching, taxpayer funded entity, and I don't think that the drug companies have to subsidize their inspections, etc., much if at all anyway, but I don't know. And why should American strictures placed by the FDA be so much more expensive than Canadian? Admittedly, I am ignorant of the reasons behind this, but I am curious as to if it is like I think it is...that these companies have paid for buddies in the Legislature, and can get away with it. Does anybody know any legitimate reasoning why these products cost Americans so much more than Canadians? There is probably something I am ignorant of or have failed to consider.
