The drug industry has failed this country in the past, to the point where the federal government had to step in, back in 1906 to be precise, to regulate unscrupulous drug companies and vendors.
At that time, progressive social reformers insisted that it was necessary for the federal government to intervene to protect consumers against unscrupulous practices by food and drug companies and sellers.
While nothing is perfect, and there will always be those who flout the law, by and large the Food & Drug Administration has done a commendable job over the years of ensuring that our country's legalized drug supply is generally reliable and safe, within the bounds of current scientific knowledge, that is.
Today, the pharmaceutical industry is failing us again, only this time it's not over the quality of the products, but sheer greed and price gouging.
Even doctors, who are the pharmaceutical industry's natural allies, are calling out their partners in health care for flagrantly violating basic ethics by gouging the public.
Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry, which invests massive amounts of money every year to purchase themselves politicians at all levels of government, currently has ownership of so many members of Congress, not to mention complete ownership of one of the two major political parties in this country, that they think they have free rein to do whatever they want.
Prices for medicine are skyrocketing, sometimes costing families thousands of dollars a month, just for one cancer drug that just a few years ago cost a fraction of that amount. Something is wrong.
It appears that the pharmaceutical industry, flush with all kinds of political power brought about by simply lavishing massive amounts of money on politicians, seems to think they are beyond accountability.
It's time we told them that the days when Big Pharma can run rough-shod over the sick and the poor of this country, misusing their power and overstepping the boundaries of ethics, with price gouging, are over.
In the attached "Truthout" article (link below), the question is put into even starker terms: "Is Big Pharma Killing Us?" For those who simply do not have the financial resources to pay for the outrageously priced drugs they need, the answer is, yes, the very pharmaceutical industry that claims to be dedicated to producing drugs to save lives is, in fact, killing people with their unscrupulous price gouging, preventing people from getting access to the drugs that they and their loved ones desperately need.
http://www.truth-out.org/...
What the article does not address is what should be done about this (other than a general call to get corporate money out of the political system, a worthy goal, but one which is highly unlikely any time soon).
Simply put, if the pharmaceutical industry is incapable or unwilling to police itself, in terms of setting fair prices to get them fair profits for life-saving (and even quality-of-life preserving) drugs, then it's time for the the People of this country, through the federal government, to force them to do so.
There are a few ways to do that. Getting corporate money out of the political system would help, but with the makeup of today's Congress and Supreme Court that's not likely going to happen anytime soon.
The federal government, through Obamacare, is trying to put pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to contain their greed. We could seek to strengthen those efforts even further. Unfortunately, that's also a slow process that takes time and will not help those people in immediate need.
Another approach would be for the federal government to simply take over the pharmaceutical industry. That, however, would likely also be a long, difficult climb, especially with a majority on the Supreme Court which has clearly shown that it's in the pockets of the oligarchs who run the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S.
Another way, and one which seems most practical to my way of thinking, is to impose price controls on the industry, requiring pharmaceutical companies to justify costs to a board consisting of doctors, drug experts and consumer advocates. Such a price control board can put an end to the unscrupulous behavior of these vampire-like pharmaceutical warlords for once and for all.