Bruce L. Wilder MD MPH JD
It is no secret that the prices of many prescription drugs in the United States are exorbitant, as has been documented in the media so well and so often that it hardly needs specifics in the short space of this article (for some specifics, see Note 8 below).
Standard justifications for such outrageous prices include the idea that drug companies need to spend lots of money to develop and bring a drug to market, and that they couldn’t possibly do it without the prices they ask. This is at times ironic, in that much of drug development is being done in universities with public funding. Another standard argument is that drug safety cannot be assured if drugs are imported from other countries where the price for an identical drug is significantly lower. Continue reading
