Lower the Prices

The Truth About Drug Companies by Marcia Angell plants an unsettling image of the drug companies and then I realized how little I knew about the influence of these drug companies. Every time I watch the television, I see these ads and slowly they unconsciously influence me to turn to look towards name brand medicine like Claritin when someone has allergies. I had no clue how much our budget goes towards these drug companies. I never gave them a second thought, naively believing that they actually are trying to create new innovated medicine to help people. It was not until I saw commercials for new medicine, an example Clarinex, that sounded exactly like they treated you like the old drugs, continuing the example Claritin, that I was began to second guess my view of the drug companies. I started hearing grumbles about the rising cost of drugs and how there are too many "me too" drugs are out there. I realized that they are businessmen and instead of trying to help those they are ill, they are using their revenue to make themselves richer. Just last week my suite mate came into my room and complained that since her insurance did not cover the eyedrops prescribed to her, she had to pay eighty dollars out of pocket. I thought that was ridiculous that she had to pay so much for a tiny bottle but after talking to a friend who is an ophthalmologist, she claimed that is the normal price for that kind of eyedrops. I understand why it will be hard to generate change in the system but I feel that price regulation is necessary. Angell mentions that the price of Norvasc is $715 but diuretics, a pill that that is found to work better than the other drugs for hypertension, is less than forty dollars. Unfortunately, the commercials drill it into our minds that we need these name brand drugs when generics do the trick and it is much cheaper. Change must be brought forth that limit the control of the big drug companies, especially since most of the money they claim goes into R&D seem to go into marketing the drug more. Since these drugs are a necessity to us, should they not also be affordable by those who need it the most?