Drug shortages and overpriced prescriptions prove that we have a failed Big Pharma sector that has no right to exist, given that we subsidize them financially, intellectually, and innovatively.
Big Pharma fraud
The FDA recently had the following to say about the drug shortages around the country.
Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): The FDA continues to take steps to monitor the supply chain. The Drug Shortage Staff within the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has asked manufacturers to evaluate their entire supply chain, including active pharmaceutical ingredients, finished dose forms, and any components that may be impacted in any area of the supply chain due to the COVID-19 outbreak. For the latest information from the FDA on COVID-19 see our website at: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
FDA is continuing to closely monitor the pediatric ibuprofen and acetaminophen supplies which have experienced increased demand since the fall of 2022 due to increases in respiratory illnesses. We are working closely with the manufacturers on their efforts to further increase supply in response to the increased demand.
It should upset all of us that a private sector entity vital to all Americans’ well-being would allow a self-inflicted supply-chain problem to endanger us. The taxpayers have always been uncompensated investors in these companies that return the favor by exporting our jobs as they manufacture overseas and then gouge us with inflated prices. They profit dearly as we subsidize the research that brings new drugs to market.
Taxpayer dollars pay for innovation in the drug development phase for research at universities and grants. It is time to clip the wings of pharmaceuticals as they are solely wealth transfer engined from the working class to their executives and shareholders.
Excellent article! Thank you for shedding light on an ad nauseam problem that’s been going on for far too long. It’s time to disrupt and restructure the entire pharmaceutical industry’s unethical business practices at the expense of the American public.