Tanner Smith

English 1201.223

Professor Stalbird

April 19, 2020

Research Essay

Skipper has had diabetes all his life and has been financially struggling ever

since he first moved out of his parents’ house. He is a teacher and the Insulin he buys

takes a huge toll on his bank account. He was never given an option for cheaper, more

efficient medicines, just told to buy the expensive Insulin he’s always gotten. His friend

recently told him about Insulin that was 3 times cheaper and is known to be more

efficient than the Insulin he buys. He did his research and learned that Insulin is never

pushed to be sold by pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers because it’s not as

much of a profit as the other medicine. People who have lifelong disorders/diseases

should be given easily accessible medicines at manageable prices. This can be done by

giving them a choice of cheaper medicines that aren’t normally suggested.

There are many reasons that medicine has spiked since the 1990s. Some

reasons are explained by Austin Frakt in “Something Happened to U.S. Drug Costs in

the 1990s.” stating that “​A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services​ issue brief

estimated that 30 percent of the rise in drug spending between 2000 and 2014 could be

attributed to price increases or greater use of higher-priced drugs.”​ Pharmaceutical

companies and manufacturers have been controlling the industry for a while now;

without change, people are going to suffer greatly from the expensive prices of
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medications. People who are born with illnesses and disorders need medicines to

sometimes stay alive, yet the prices are astronomically overpriced. This shouldn’t be the

case considering in some instances some medicines are able to help the user with their

disease but are cheaper to produce and are sold for less than other products. The

expensive prices get pushed out by these companies and the buyers don’t get a say in

what medicine they get. If they were allowed to buy the cheaper medicine that has the

same effects it would help people that are lower-income families/individuals.

With some disorders or diseases, companies sometimes ignore the cheaper

option to make more profit off of their suffering patients. This can be explained by

Megan O’brian in “Economics of Inhaled Oxygen Use as an Acute Therapy for Cluster

Headache in the United States of America.” describes “​Out of the 42 US states where

pricing information of medical grade oxygen was available from suppliers, in 38 states

the annual cost of high-flow oxygen for a patient with episodic CH was estimated to be

<$1000.” There was treatment for oxygen that in most states was cheaper than $1000

while they were giving many other treatments that were extremely more expensive.

They knew this treatment worked and was the cheapest option yet they didn’t want to

expand upon it or use it for their patients. This is why it should be required to have to

inform the patients of all the options that are available because if those families knew

about the oxygen treatments for the cluster headaches it would be that much less of a

financial strain it would have on the person or the family paying for it. Even if it was

$300 cheaper or $30 cheaper it still really helps to know and in the long run, could help

them financially.
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The pharmaceutical industry increases the prices on drugs and other

medications more than the average inflation. Edward P. Hoffer in “America’s HealthCare

System Is Broken: What Went Wrong and How We Can Fix It. Part 4: The

Pharmaceutical Industry.” discusses “​ existing products see price increases that

regularly outstrip general inflation, making the pharmaceutical industry very profitable

and resulting in many patients skipping or cutting the doses of such critical medicines as

insulin.” The skipping of doses on critical medicines harms your body and also is

life-threatening in some cases. The pharmaceutical industry is greedy and doesn’t care

about the patients that can already barely afford their medicines to begin with. Raising

their medications past inflation is unethical and they should be eligible for lawsuits

because this leads to people getting sick, injured, or dead because of their unfair

treatment to people. This could be a family member, friend, teacher, or even just

strangers you see on the street that is struggling every day just to get their full dose of

medicine for their chronic illness or other diseases and disorders.

As technology advances more expensive products are going to be put on the

shelves and mass-produced, but many can't afford these advanced medicines. If the

cheaper options were still offered it would help many people if they couldn’t afford the

expensive medicines with expenses. ​Laura N. McEwan in “Why Are Diabetes

Medications So Expensive and What Can Be Done to Control Their Cost?” states “​The

increase in insulin expenditures may be attributed to several factors: the shift from

inexpensive beef and pork insulins to more expensive genetically engineered human

insulins and insulin analogs…” In this circumstance, if the beef and pork insulin was still
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offered people wouldn’t have to ration their insulin. Companies are going to try to push

the expensive genetically modified Insulin but if the person can't afford that it’ll help to

give them inexpensive medicine. This is significant because people with diabetes won't

be confined into the expensive choice that’ll put them in debt, it even works for people

having the choice if the pig insulin was offered for religious reasons if they weren’t

allowed to put pig inside them.

Many of the Medicare beneficiaries can restrict medicines and other copycat

drugs from getting onto the shelves. This is a problem for people with not as much

money whose only option is these “generic medicines.” They are similar drugs that may

have small differences but can sometimes be cheaper or not be as mass-produced.

Danielle K. Roberts in “The Deadly Costs of Insulin.” writes “Although the current

proposed plans by Cigna and Sanofi won’t affect Medicare beneficiaries, perhaps the

additions of generic options will. As of right now, there are few generic insulin options

and Medicare Part D plans are not required to offer them all.” The blocking of generic

options causes medicine monopolies and wildlife just cause that specific medicine to

continue to rise in price without anyone able to stop it. This is a problem for the lower

class Americans who need insulin or other drugs that are required to live.
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This brings us back to letting people choose what medicine they want for the disorder or

disease they have, letting people choose a generic option of the drug they need could

allow for them to financially stay afloat and could lead to the prevention of monopolies of

drugs and medications.

Many countries have tried changing the way they’ve dealt with the pharma

industry to help people afford these drugs by searching for different Novell therapies.

This allows for different options for solving the same medical problem while giving the

patient a choice in how they want to deal with their medical problem. If they don’t have

much money they might choose the cheapest option that has generally the same results

as bigger name brand medicines. In America, certain disorders or medical problems are

run by one maybe two mainstream drugs that are very expensive so other companies

have been introducing more ways to medicate their citizens so they don’t have to deal

with the mainstream companies ruling the pharma economy. This idea is described by
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Mathias Flume in “Approaches to Manage 'Affordability' of High Budget Impact

Medicines” where he writes “...seven countries in western Europe are approaching the

question of affordability of novel therapies and are developing approaches to continue

to reward new sciences while limiting budget impact.” This has worked by controlling

the companies from having too much power in controlling the cost of certain medicines.

Companies like to overprice their medicines when they are the only option available so

adding these novel therapies allows for the mainstream medicines not increasing their

prices too much. If they do the customers are just going to buy the novel therapies

instead of the mainstream drug. America needs to follow suit with these other countries

because they have the highest costing pharmaceutical industry in the world. This is bad

for the citizens because they have to pay drastically more than any other country like

Canada or Britain.

Manufacturers set prices for the drugs they make with no real government

intervention. Allowing these manufacturers to set the prices for the drugs is terrible for

the citizens because with a lot of the drugs being made there are normally one to two

drugs or medications that are known to buy for the medical problems that are pushed by

the industry. When they push these drugs the prices get dramatically overpriced and

leads to the lower-income individuals not being able to afford these medicines. William

T. Cefalu in “Insulin Access and Affordability Working Group: Conclusions and

Recommendations.” explains “​The insulin supply chain mirrors that of many other

prescription drugs. As outlined, manufacturers set the list price for each insulin product.

Manufacturers typically sell their medications to wholesalers, who handle distribution to

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individual pharmacies.” The government needs to intervene and make sure these

manufactures aren’t listing their drugs past the point of inflammation. The manufacturers

are shady and only care about the money so we need the government to make sure

they set the prices fairly. Also, people need to be able to choose with the medicine they

want and not get forced into the direction of the mainstream drugs to prevent

monopolies.

The United States government has no role in regulating drug prices or limiting

how expensive they can be like all the other countries. Sarah Kliff in “The True Story of

America’s sky-high prescription drug prices” explains how “The United States is

exceptional in that it does not regulate or negotiate the prices of new prescription drugs

when they come onto market. Other countries will task a government agency to meet

with pharmaceutical companies and haggle over an appropriate price.” Many other

countries regulate drug prices by meeting with the manufacturers and haggling over the

correct price that the drug should be. The government creates groups that will go and

discuss with those drug manufacturers but in America we let the manufacturers change

the price at their own will. This is significant because if we were to let the people choose

the drug they wanted they wouldn’t have to choose the drug that’s thousands cheaper in

other countries. They could choose a generic medicine that suits their needs while

being affordable.

For those not convinced that allowing people to choose their medicines allows for

these individuals to remain financially stable, then understand when you use an

expensive medicine that’s required, sometimes you don’t need to be on that expensive
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medicine anymore. Matthew Riddle in “Insulin Therapy in People With Type 2 Diabetes:

Opportunities and Challenges?” states “​For those previously starting insulin, various

other forms of therapy can be added later, which offer complimentary effects

appropriate to individual needs.” This means that for example if someone has type two

diabetes, they can eventually go to other medications to stay healthy and don’t need the

most expensive medicine. Other treatments can be given to people who have been

healthy in their expensive medicines. Letting people choose these other medications

can help them financially stay afloat if they can’t afford the insulin or whatever drug they

have been using they can choose other cheaper therapies to remain healthy because

not everyone needs the drastic choice for their disorder, disease, or whatever medical

problem they have.

To sum up the paper, the patient must have a hand in choosing their medicines

instead of being pushed to the name brand drugs for their medical situation. This helps

in instances where that person doesn't have the money for the name brand drugs and

could just as easily get the same effect by getting generic drugs for their medical

problem or novel therapies. Forcing someone upon name-brand drugs is unethical and

could lead to financial problems if they can’t afford the overpriced drug, especially since

most manufacturers overprice their drugs past inflation and it isn’t regulated by the

government. Most of the time one to two drugs rule over one specific medical problem

which allows for them to price their drugs with no care for anyone’s well being because

it's a pharmaceutical monopoly for what specific drugs. The Government should

regulate this because overpricing your drugs should be illegal because it’s unethical to
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the people who need the drugs but can't afford them. After all, they are drastically

overpriced. Lastly, this is being allowed in other first world countries and America is far

behind them in pharmaceutical regulations that they are the most expensive

pharmaceutical industry and are way past inflation. Doing what is listed could let people

all over the country finally afford treatment for medical problems they’re going to have

their whole life.

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Works Cited:

Cefalu, William T. “Insulin Access and Affordability Working Group: Conclusions and

Recommendations.” Diabetes Care, ​American Diabetes Association,​ 1 June

2018, care.diabetesjournals.org/content/41/6/1299. Accessed 18 Feb. 2020.

Flume, Mathias. “Approaches to Manage 'Affordability' of High Budget Impact

Medicines in Key

EU Countries.” Taylor & Francis, ​Taylor Francis Online​, 8 June 2018,

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20016689.2018.1478539. Accessed 18

Feb. 2020

Frakt, Austin. “Something Happened to U.S. Drug Costs in the 1990s.” The New York

Times, ​The New York Times​, 12 Nov. 2018,

www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/upshot/why-prescription-drug-spending-higher-in-t

he-us.html. Accessed 18 Feb. 2020.

Hoffer, Edward P. “America’s HealthCare System Is Broken: What Went Wrong and

How We Can Fix It. Part 4: The Pharmaceutical Industry.” Sinclair College

Off-Campus Authentication Form, ​The American Journal Of Medicine​, Sept.

2019,

www-sciencedirect-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/science/article/pii/S00029343193033

3X?via=ihub.“Insulin Basics.” Insulin Basics | ADA, American Diabetes

Association,
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www.diabetes.org/diabetes/medication-management/insulin-other-injectables/ins

ulin-basics. Accessed 18 Feb. 2020.

Kliff, Sarah. “The True Story of America’s sky-high prescription drug prices” Vox. ​Vox

Media. 10 May 2018,

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/11/30/12945756/prescription-drug

-prices-explained. Accessed 12 Apr. 2020

McEwen, Laura N. “Why Are Diabetes Medications So Expensive and What

Can Be Done to Control Their Cost?” Sinclair College Off-Campus Authentication

Form, ​Current Diabetes Report​, 24 July 2017,

journals-ohiolink-edu.sinclair.ohionet.org/pg_200?::NO:200:P200_ARTICLEID:34

8555909. Accessed 18 Feb. 2020

O’Brien, Megan. “Economics of Inhaled Oxygen Use as an Acute Therapy for Cluster

Headache in the United States of America.” Sinclair College Off-Campus

Authentication Form,​ Headache​, 26 Aug. 2017,

headachejournal-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/doi/full/10.1111/hea

d.13167.Accessed 18 Feb. 2020.

People Protesting High Insulin Prices. Digital image. Right Care Alliance. Web. 12 April

2020. <RightCareAlliance.org>

Riddle, Matthew. “Insulin Therapy in People With Type 2 Diabetes: Opportunities and

Challenges?” Diabetes Care,​ American Diabetes Association​, 1 June 2014,

care.diabetesjournals.org/content/37/6/1499. Accessed 18 Feb. 2020.

Roberts, Danielle K. “The Deadly Costs of Insulin.” ​AJMC,​ 10 June 2019,

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www.ajmc.com/contributor/danielle-roberts/2019/06/the-deadly-costs-of-insulin.

Accessed 18 Feb. 2020.