Pharmaceutical companies are crooks!

[klone]

A friend's sister is newly pregnant and is having pretty bad morning sickness. She was telling my friend about a medication her OB prescribed her and she learned it's about $100/pill! Luckily, her insurance covers it, though.

The drug? Diclegis. What is Diclegis, you ask? It's effin' Vitamin B6 and Unisom! Both things you can buy OTC, big bottle, for less than $10.

But some pharmaceutical company gave it a fancy name and put a silhouette of a pregnant woman on the pill, and now they can charge $100 a pill??

CROOKS, I tell you!

[klone, MSN, RN]

What your paying for is for someone to put the medications together and test them for risk to pregnant women. You're paying for someone else to take the fall in case of a birth defect. If a doc were to just say "take B-6 and Unisom" for an off-label reason, the doc becomes responsible for anything that happens to babby.

Except that the FDA has categorized these two medications as Pregnancy Category Risk A years ago. This combination of medications has been well-studied for over 50 years.

Interestingly enough, this combination of medications is the ONLY FDA approved medication for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy.

The vast majority of medications given to women for NVP and HG are not approved specifically for that purpose.

[klone, MSN, RN]

] Maybe things have changed but those budgets were very often mixed together, making it difficult to say what part of the doctor's paycheck actually came from one or the other.

.

When I worked in research, we had to be very careful about specifying how much of our time went to drug trial research, and how much went to "everything else." We had to do this at every pay period.

[Asystole RN]

]

I'm pretty sure that is common knowledge, but here is something I wonder about . how a pharmaceutical company decides where to focus their research efforts? It's noble to formulate cancer cures etc., but what percentage of their research dollars go into things like Lyrica for fibromyalgia and other things that are fairly obviously pursued because of the cash cow factor?

Do you think a pharmaceutical company might lobby behind the scenes to get a cheap over-the-counter asthma med taken off the market because there is no profit if people use that cheap but effective OTC inhaler?

Then there is the Texas Gardisil deal. . .

I worked for a government doctor who was also given a pile of money to run clinical trials while they are also paid on the taxpayer's dime, so to speak. Maybe things have changed but those budgets were very often mixed together, making it difficult to say what part of the doctor's paycheck actually came from one or the other.

I'm not intending to demonize either side, just be realistic.

Most people have no clue as to what the actual operating costs are for medical companies. They know it is "expensive" but there is "expensive" and "EXPENSIVE."

Pharmaceutical companies will focus their research where the investors want them to, that generally is the most profitable avenue. There are incentives for companies to research in other areas such as grants and extended exclusivity rights granted by the FDA for orphan drugs.”

Companies want to fix things like cancer because the first company to develop a miracle drug for breast cancer instantly has not made their quarter, they made their decade.

Pharmaceutical companies, professional nursing organizations, and patient's rights groups all lobby for their best interest. The discussion on whether private interests should be allowed to lobby or not is a different discussion and has no bearing on the current.

I cannot speak to your physician's accounting ability. I will say that who and how one conducts research is greatly scrutinized, having had personal experience with it.

[Farawyn]

Except that the FDA has categorized these two medications as Pregnancy Category Risk A years ago. This combination of medications has been well-studied for over 50 years.

Interestingly enough, this combination of medications is the ONLY FDA approved medication for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy.

The vast majority of medications given to women for NVP and HG are not approved specifically for that purpose.

When I worked at the clinic we had a standing order for the B6, Unisom. We would enter it or call it in as a script, but it was B6 and Unisom, nothing more. That was a little over a year ago, not years ago.

So, some docs don't give in to it.

[klone, MSN, RN]

When I worked at the clinic we had a standing order for the B6, Unisom. We would enter it or call it in as a script, but it was B6 and Unisom, nothing more. That was a little over a year ago, not years ago.

So, some docs don't give in to it.

None of our providers do, either. Like I said, we work with really poor people, and know how to do medication work-arounds. Diclegis is certainly not on the Medicaid formulary.

We always write out "doxylamine" though, instead of saying "Unisom" because you can get Unisom with other antihistamines in it, rather than doxylamine.

[nursel56]

Most people have no clue as to what the actual operating costs are for medical companies. They know it is "expensive" but there is "expensive" and "EXPENSIVE."

Pharmaceutical companies will focus their research where the investors want them to, that generally is the most profitable avenue. There are incentives for companies to research in other areas such as grants and extended exclusivity rights granted by the FDA for orphan drugs.”

I didn't know that for-profit companies were awarded grants and that they focus their research where investors want them to.

My experience was to observe the inner workings of how a team of researchers affiliated with a large university in my area studied Alzheimer's disease while also interviewing people who were part of double-blind studies funded by large pharmaceutical corporations.

Companies want to fix things like cancer because the first company to develop a miracle drug for breast cancer instantly has not made their quarter, they made their decade.

Pharmaceutical companies, professional nursing organizations, and patient's rights groups all lobby for their best interest. The discussion on whether private interests should be allowed to lobby or not is a different discussion and has no bearing on the current.

My point was not whether or not lobbying is appropriate (of course it is), but what is the goal of their lobbying efforts. Your portrayal of "big pharma" seemed to be that we should accept paying any price they want to charge without question because their goals are assumed to be in the public interest.

I cannot speak to your physician's accounting ability. I will say that who and how one conducts research is greatly scrutinized, having had personal experience with it.

I was talking about deliberately using money from one account to pay for things associated with another, glad to hear there is more oversight there. Thanks for the reply.

[OyWithThePoodles, RN]

I was lucky enough that after calling and telling my provider that the diclegis was $500 WITH insurance, she gave me a sample bottle, which lasted for the second half of my last pregnancy and the first half of this one. But she also told me that if I run out, to just use b6 and unisom. Hopefully providers are looking out for their preggo's and telling them that that is all the medicine is in case their insurance doesn't cover it.

[Decade1]

If you don't like their product or how much it costs, don't buy it.

I would LOVE to hear you, personally, tell some with AIDS or cancer who happened to contract toxoplasmosis this exact thing right to their face. You either a) don't fully understand the repercussions of your position or b) don't care about the repercussions of your position and, boy, is that heartless coming from a medical professional.

[Decade1]

This type of pricing, along with exorbitant mark-ups in hospitals, and many other medical billing practices are part of what contribute to bloated medical costs in this country. Other countries successfully research drugs and provide healthcare to all their citizens for less money than we do in the US. An overhaul of healthcare has to start with fixing the payment and billing structure that is outdated, not evidence based, gives providers, insurers and consumers no concept of the real value of a treatment and could bankrupt us if left unchecked.

I've seen it in practice. Dr. So-and-so always wants a pre-auth for XYZ fancy new medication instead of the cheaper more commonly used version. Tell me he doesn't have some other "in-vested" interest in promoting this drug rep or that medical device's product. I'm not talking about being paid a fair amount for your work and training, but over bloated costs for every little thing create distortions in choosing good values.

[elkpark]

This type of pricing, along with exorbitant mark-ups in hospitals, and many other medical billing practices are part of what contribute to bloated medical costs in this country. Other countries successfully research drugs and provide healthcare to all their citizens for less money than we do in the US. An overhaul of healthcare has to start with fixing the payment and billing structure that is outdated, not evidence based, gives providers, insurers and consumers no concept of the real value of a treatment and could bankrupt us if left unchecked.

I've seen it in practice. Dr. So-and-so always wants a pre-auth for XYZ fancy new medication instead of the cheaper more commonly used version. Tell me he doesn't have some other "in-vested" interest in promoting this drug rep or that medical device's product. I'm not talking about being paid a fair amount for your work and training, but over bloated costs for every little thing create distortions in choosing good values.

(I really wish I could "like" this more than once. :))

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

I don't know what's going on with my insurance. I take one drug, a low dose ACE inhibitor. It has gone from over $20 a bottle, down to $10 a bottle, to last time, just a little over $1. Now THAT is unusual!

[nurseypants123]

Funny that you used ZzQuil as an example. My wonderful husband, who should know better after being married to me for this long, insists that the brand name "works better" than the exact same generic drug.

Who am I to argue, if he insists this is so, for him it is so. I guess I will be forever stuck paying for the brand name. At least he has no problem using generic Tylenol, Advil and Aleve instead of the overpriced brand names.

I buy generic aspirin and put it in the old Bayer aspirin bottle because my husband thinks there is a difference. I guess that is harder if it doesn't come in a bottle.