Let me tell your my story. I am on a pill called Colchicine that I have to take 3 times a day for life. The pill's formula is hundreds of years old and would cost me pennies. That was until a company convinced FDA to ban the generics and only allow its own brand. The same pill that used to cost 10 cents now costs $5/pill to me here in the US. Meanwhile in India, it still costs pennies.
Interesting about Colchinine[1]. Apparently the FDA does 3-year exclusive agreements with companies in exchange for conducting new clinical trials.
The idiotic thing here is that by raising the prices, it cost Medicare $49M more a year for apparently a ~$100M investment into research.
I don't know why the government wouldn't fund it directly in this case. Or in general, why they don't add a tax onto the drug in question and do the research themselves. It seems like an odd, public-damaging way to go about things.
Let me tell your my story. I am on a pill called Colchicine that I have to take 3 times a day for life. The pill's formula is hundreds of years old and would cost me pennies. That was until a company convinced FDA to ban the generics and only allow its own brand. The same pill that used to cost 10 cents now costs $5/pill to me here in the US. Meanwhile in India, it still costs pennies.
I wish US would take a page from India.