US ill over high medicine price

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br />Two immigrants met over lunch here recently for an unusual transaction. One of them, who had just returned from India, handed the other, a long term US resident, two boxes of Asthalin, an asthma controlling medication made by the Indian <a href="articleshow/433685.cms">drug</a> company, Cipla.In the US, each inhaler is priced at around $ 20, close to a thousand rupees. In India, they cost less than Rs 100 each. <br /><br /><img align="left" src="/photo/443392.cms" alt="/photo/443392.cms" border="0" />Such small, friendly <a href="articleshow/344851.cms">drug</a> transactions between world travellers, even Americans, are becoming increasingly common as the price of prescription medicines shoot through the roof in the US. A small cache of drugs, even workaday vitamins and non-prescription pain killers meant for personal use, can save you up to $ 100. <br /><br />Western <a href="articleshow/344855.cms">pharma companies</a> argue that the drugs are cheaper in India because Indian firms make knock offs under patent protection cover from the Indian government. That still does not explain why drugs cost less, almost by half, in every other country outside the US. <br /><br />In fact, India is only a small part of the problem for Big Pharma. Thousands of Americans, especially senior citizens, are now streaming across the American borders into Canada and Mexico every week to buy prescription medicines. <br /><br />According to Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders, Americans pay the highest prices for drugs in the world, coughing up an average of 174 per cent more than the rest of the world. <br /><br /><formid=367815><br /><br /></formid=367815></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">For every $1 that an American pays for his <a href="articleshow/351017.cms">medication</a>, the Swiss, ranked second in the drug cost index, pay only 65 cents. Fifty top selling drugs in the US are about 30 to 70 per cent cheaper in Canada. Typically, Indians pay less than one-tenth of what an equivalent drug costs in the US. <br /><br />The cost differential is so aggravating that Americans are discovering that even a journey across the border for a six-month supply, or ordering it online from abroad with the risk of it being seized, is worth the effort. <br /><br />Last year, the FDA and the Bureau of Customs conducted a series of spot checks at international mail arrival centers in New York, Miami and San Francisco. Of 1,153 imported drugs that were checked, all but 134 were illegally shipped.<br /><br />The argument that the India and other countries are ripping off Big Pharma is a lot of baloney, according to players fighting to make drugs more affordable for Americans. While issues of intellectual property rights are debatable, the fact is the pharma industry is ripping of the American commoner. <br /><br />According to Congressman Sanders, the top seven drug companies took in more in pure profit than the top seven auto companies, the top seven oil companies, the top seven airline companies, and the top seven media companies. One drug company, Merck, made more profit than all of the airline companies on the Fortune 500 list, and bested the entertainment and construction industries as well. <br /><br /><formid=367815><br /></formid=367815></div> </div>