Blame Capitalism?
The shortages, which have been going on for years, have typically affected only low-cost generics rather than profitable brand-name drugs.
Blame Capitalism?
More or less. As a pharmacist from the dark corners of the EU, there are essential, basic drugs absent from the market since at least a decade, while expensive and innovative therapies hit the market almost immediately. Examples of that would be lithium (for bipolar, costs pennies) Vs Reagila(antipsychotic for bipolar and schizophrenia, costs about 100€ here, thousands of $ in the US), Chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine Vs biologics (no room for comparison since they’re vastly different but biologics are widely available while chloroquine has been gone for 5 years now and hydroxychloroquine was manufactured during the COVID craze at a huge margin).
We do not have penicillin G for syphilis, we do not have nitrofurantoin for UTIs(we use ciprofloxacin instead, yuck), don’t get me started on the anticonvulsants.
AND on top of that, generics aren’t always cheaper. If your oncologist or cardiologist has been woo’d by a representative of a company that sells their indian-made repackaged drugs at double the price of the brand-name, good luck switching brands unless you’re ready to give up your insurance reimbursement.
great read, thanks.
