The issue of prices for pharmaceuticals appears, once again, to be on its way to becoming an issue. Every few years the news media raise the issue of the price of therapeutic drugs and cite it as a major cause of the rising cost of healthcare. The issue eventually dies down after it becomes clear to everyone that the cost of therapeutic drugs is actually only a small percentage of the cost of healthcare. In the meantime there is a lot of finger pointing and accusations of price gouging. The issue will not go away because, like gun control, it is a convenient target for those who seek quick and easy answers to complex questions. In addition the current discussions on healthcare bring the subject into everyone's minds.

In part the industry itself must bear some of the blame. Stories about lavish dinners and expense paid vacations for clinicians who participate in clinical trials are widespread. Some of them are even true and are the result of poor public relations on the part of pharmaceutical companies. There have been many reports of limousines whisking physicians away to private dinners and to late night entertainment during national conventions. That this happens in clear view of others, may be a sign of openness, but at a time of public concern about the cost of healthcare, it is not wise.

The problem of course, is that there is a certain segment of the population that strongly believes that they should receive cradle to grave healthcare at absolutely no cost to themselves. In fact many of these people believe that they should receive all types of care from cradle to grave at no cost to themselves. The idea that the cost must then be borne by other members of society does not occur to them because they have a curiously distorted view of economics that says that the government can solve the whole problem by simply printing all the money that is needed without any consequences. The fact that many politicians pander to these people is a sad testimony to the sorry state of affairs with our secondary education system that should be giving the average citizen a basic grounding in economics.

This is not to say that there are no people who are in need of help. The media are very good at finding people who really do need help in paying for necessities. The pathetic stories are developed in a manner to elicit maximum sympathy. The stories are often presented in a manner to suggest that the majority of people are in this sad situation. Actually, these people really represent a small minority, and everyone, including the pharmaceutical industry hopes that the current interest in healthcare reform will produce solutions that will help these people in an effective and sensible manner. Of course this situation is found all through our society. There are desperate people who, through no fault of their own, need help in paying for other basic needs such as food, housing, and clothing. Their problems are being exploited by those who seek to manipulate public opinion for their advantage with no regard to the damage that they create.

Thus we can expect to go through another round of newspaper and TV news stories about how the evil pharmaceutical industry is over charging the defenseless public for their drugs. There will be no realistic stories of the true cost of developing and manufacturing drugs, nor will the costs of all of the safety and efficacy testing be discussed. Those of us who have been around a while have seen this before and after this round dies down, we will probably see more in the future. 

Dr.Steven Kuwahara 
Principal
GXP BioTehnology LLC
kuwahara@gxpbiotech.org