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Kayla Briceno 18913566

Prof. Annie Yaniga
Writing 39c
2/23/20
Prescription for Exorbitant Drugs in America

The rise of America’s death rate is associated with the lack of a health care system

established on equity and efficiency. Moreover, countless Americans are dying due to the unjust

and overpriced pharmaceutical drugs they need to survive. The prescription for exorbitant drug

prices in America is controlling costs of drugs through establishing a value-based pricing system,

preventing patent abuse, and promoting generic competition on the federal government level.

The current health care system in the United States is deficient. It is deficient due to the

active deception within the pharmaceutical industry and loose regulation from the federal

government that are responsible for the punitive prices of prescription drugs. ​The poor state of

America’s health care system can further be associated with the broken employment-based

system that is no longer viable due to the rising health care costs ​(Jost 574)​. ​Americans are

divested of their right to affordable drugs because they live in a country that values

commercialism over social welfare, pharmacy profit over patient health, and corporate greed

over human need. Drug manufacturers are able to file lawsuits that delay biosimilars, biologic

medical products that share the same terms of safety, purity and potency as costly name brand

drugs, from entering the market ​(Rajkumar). ​Additionally, the United States’ strong patent

protection received by drug companies and the free-pricing system in which they operate under

enable corruption amongst pharmaceutical industries that abuse their power (Waxman).
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This illustration by Cathryn

Virginia symbolizes the grave

state of the United States

health care system, as it

continues to foster financial

restraints on individuals.

Bloomberg.com. April

2018.

Thus, federal regulation must be implemented by passing universal legislation that regulates the

pricing system, reforms the patent system, and promotes generic competition.

The cost of drugs should be determined through a value-based pricing system, in which

the quality of patient health is prioritized over pharmacy profit. There is arguably a lot of gray

area within classifying drugs as “valuable” since that word has different meanings among

different audiences. However, this form of drug pricing regulation has shown a significant

degree of success in countries beyond the U.S. borders. Countries such as Canada and Norway

operate auspiciously by offering equitable drug costs through a value-based pricing system. In

Norway, state-run health systems crack down on drug companies that attempt to charge high

prices for their products that inadequately represent cost-effectiveness. The Norweigan

government does this by reviewing patient data to determine if new drugs are valuable in
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comparison to existing ones, setting price caps on drugs by negotiating target prices for drugs

based on their effectiveness, and in some cases denying the coverage of medicines that are not

worth the cost (Whalen). In America though, only seven of the 78 total drugs brought into

market in 2002 were new and improved chemical compounds that were actually classified as

better than old drugs (Angell). This form of corruption can be eradicated if the United States

adopts a health care system like Norway’s, in which patients are guaranteed quality drugs for

affordable prices.

Works Cited

Angell, Marcia. “The Truth about the Drug Companies.” ​Jurimetrics​, vol. 45, no. 4,
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2005, pp. 465–471. ​JSTOR​,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/29762909?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.

Jost, Timothy Stoltzfus. “Our Broken Health Care System and How to Fix It: An

Essay on Health Law and Policy .” ​Wake Forest Law Review​, vol. 41, no. 2, 2006, pp.

537-618.,

heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals%2Fwflr41&id=593

&men_tab=srchresults.

Rajkumar, Vincent. “The High Cost of Insulin in the United States: An Urgent Call to

Action.” ​Mayo Clinic Proceedings​, vol. 95, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 22–28.,

www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(19)31008-0/fulltext#sec1.2.1.

Waxman, Henry A. “Lower Drug Costs Now.” ​Lower Drug Costs Now,​ Health

Affairs, 4 Oct. 2019, www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20191003.118206/full/.

Whalen, Jeanne. “Why the U.S. Pays More Than Other Countries for Drugs.” ​The

Wall Street Journal​, Dow Jones & Company, 2 Dec. 2015,

www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-u-s-pays-more-than-other-countries-for-drugs-144893948

1.

Images Used
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Tozzi, John, and Emma Ockerman. “What It’s Like Living Without Health

Insurance in America.” ​Bloomberg.com​, Bloomberg, 3 Apr. 2018,

www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-04-03/what-it-s-like-living-without-healt

h-insurance-in-america.