by Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com and Sam Werbalowsky, Pharmacychecker.com | Dec 5, 2013 | Advocacy, Drug Prices, Pharmaceutical Industry
A recent blog post on Philly.com by pharmaceutical industry expert Daniel Hoffman, Ph.D., exposes the hypocrisy of pharma’s addictions to high U.S. drug prices and deceptive marketing. Dr. Hoffman asserts that because the pharmaceutical industry is doing a bad job at generating revenues with new and innovative medications, and even flailing in its “me-too” drug business model, it has shifted to “economic hypocrisy and legal sophistry” to protect and generate revenue. Its shift may also be caused by increasing use of generics and compulsory licensing (allowing generic competition in spite of current patents), as well as the flat-out uproar against high drug prices, especially in the U.S.
Dr. Hoffman used data from our “American Made; Cheaper Abroad” series to highlight the incredible price gap between domestic and foreign prices of American made drugs. A price gap should exist; there’s nothing wrong with companies setting different prices in different countries. Poorer countries pay lower prices, and richer countries pay higher prices. The problem is that drug prices are excessively high in the U.S., so much so that they are often unaffordable for tens of millions of middle class Americans. The pharmaceutical industry takes advantage of a global economy and free trade agreements to keep manufacturing costs down and maximize patent terms. Despite reaping the rewards of globalization, the industry continues to try to prevent consumers from doing so, as exemplified by its efforts to stop Maine’s progressive law that facilitates safe personal drug importation. The industry’s bogus safety arguments about personal drug importation failed to stop the law from passing and now the drug and U.S. pharmacy industries are turning to the courts to protect profits.
Dr. Hoffman explains other legal ploys recently used by pharma, primarily to defend against charges of deceptive marketing practices. Johnson & Johnson, claiming its rights of due process were violated, tried to invalidate a request for documents by the City of Chicago in part because the city used an outside law firm that would receive a percentage of any settlement. In other words, J&J argued that by earning a percentage of a potential settlement, the law firm’s incentive to win was too strong and thus unfair to J&J! Facing similar charges, Merck argued against the Kentucky Attorney General’s similar arrangement with an outside law firm. A judge ruled against Merck’s complaint.
To quote the author, “So pharma vigorously seeks justice from the legal system when it tries to prevent foreign countries from exercising compulsory licensing (i.e. breaking patents), while it also claims the public’s representatives shouldn’t be allowed to obtain first-rate legal counsel.” Pharma is trying to create an unfair playing field, both in the legal area and within the global economy.
Tagged with: American Made Prescriptions Are Cheaper Abroad, Daniel Hoffman, Johnson and Johnson, Merck
by PharmacyChecker.com | Nov 4, 2013 | Advocacy, Drug Prices, Personal Drug Importation
Last week on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC public radio, Elisabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times talked about the high cost of medications in America and how Americans genuinely need foreign pharmacies to afford their prescribed medication. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about five million Americans personally import medication. Many search online to do so and must avoid scams and bad pharmacies. When asked how consumers can know what they are getting online, Ms. Rosenthal said, “That’s the concern FDA has about allowing imports…So you have to be a little careful about where you buy from. There’s something called PharmacyChecker.com, which vets overseas pharmacies, which many people have told me is very useful.”
We’re very pleased that highly respected media outlets and journalists are covering the health crisis caused by drug prices, informing the public of personal drug importation’s role as a lifeline for Americans, and discussing the need for changes to U.S. laws.
Tagged with: Elisabeth Rosenthal, Leonard Lopate, New York Times, WNYC
by PharmacyChecker.com | Sep 19, 2013 | Advocacy, Online Pharmacies, Politics
Our vice president, Gabriel Levitt (Gabe), presented testimony at a congressional hearing yesterday, urging congress to protect Americans’ access to safe and affordable medication online. The hearing was held by the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet and titled “The Role of Voluntary Agreements in the U.S. Intellectual Property System.” What exactly does this hearing have to do with Americans buying medication from Canada and other countries?
Basically, the government is encouraging large American companies to band together through “voluntary agreements” to stop online piracy and intellectual property violations online and this hearing discussed the effectiveness of these agreements. The heads of big business trade associations attended primarily to defend current practices and encourage even stricter rules. Although the hearing’s focus was about the online availability of copyright material like music and movies, some committee members were pleased to hear about the online pharmacy side of things. Gabe discussed the voluntary agreements adopted by leading Internet and credit card companies to combat rogue online pharmacies through their association in the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies , also known as CSIP. CSIP’s efforts, which rely on data powered by LegitScript, have successfully curbed access to some dangerous web pharmacies, but they also wrongly categorize all non-US online pharmacies that sell to Americans as “unapproved.” This may scare Americans away from safe and affordable pharmacies, including sites approved by PharmacyChecker.com. Gabe said:
We believe that voluntary agreements can be a useful tool in protecting Americans from counterfeit products, but they can also be misused in anti-competitive ways which scare and thwart Americans from accessing affordable medication. This leads to poor medication compliance with negative health consequences and also goes against the Administration’s desire that voluntary agreements not be used to impede competition.
We’d like to thank Subcommittee Ranking Member Congressman Melvin Watt who initiated the invitation to Mr. Levitt. While Congressman Watt favors voluntary agreements to combat online intellectual property violations, he genuinely sought insight into how American consumers can be negatively affected by such agreements. You can read the full PharmacyChecker.com congressional testimony and watch the hearing. (Gabe’s testimony begins at 58:00)
Tagged with: Congress, CSIP, Gabriel Levitt, House Judiciary Committee, LegitScript
by PharmacyChecker.com | Sep 11, 2013 | Advocacy, Drug Prices, Pharmaceutical Industry
A popular industry/government blog called Pharmalot, now Pharmalive.com/pharmalot published an op-ed written by our vice president, Gabriel Levitt, explaining why high drug prices are literally making Americans sick, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, and how so little is being done by the government. The fact is that American consumers and taxpayers are getting pilloried under the weight of high drug prices. Personal drug importation through safe international online pharmacies is a life saver – sometimes literally because those who go without medication due to cost sometimes die. This won’t change until drug prices come down in America.
Tagged with: pharmacychecker, pharmalot
by PharmacyChecker.com | Sep 10, 2013 | Advocacy, Online Pharmacies
Our vice president, Gabriel Levitt, submitted comments to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to emphasize that the Obama administration’s online pharmacy strategy curtails access by Americans to safe online pharmacies in its otherwise important efforts to combat “rogue” online pharmacies. Its Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) seeks to encourage companies, such as search engines, domain registrars, and credit card companies to prohibit services to dangerous web pharmacies. This may sound good, but all is not what it seems.
IPEC’s efforts led to the creation of the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP), which in our opinion, is essentially a group of very important companies working together to fulfill the wishes of the pharmaceutical industry as they relate to online pharmacies. Founded partly by Google, CSIP is allied with big pharmaceutical and U.S. pharmacy interests, such as Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, LegitScript, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, and the Partnership for Safe Medicines. All of these organizations are either fully or partially funded by drug companies or U.S. chain pharmacies, or are paid by the FDA, and help discourage safe personal drug importation while cracking down on real rogue sites. We abhor the former but support the latter. They label safe international online pharmacies as “rogue” or “illegitimate” – scaring people away from affordable medication online. We hope our advice to the U.S. government will help prevent further exacerbation of the problem of Americans skipping prescribed medication due to high drug prices in America.
Tagged with: Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, CSIP, FDA, Partnership for Safe Medicines
by PharmacyChecker.com | Aug 29, 2013 | Advocacy, Pharmaceutical Industry
Our friends at RxRights have chastised CVS’s new ExtraCare Pharmacy & Health Rewards program because its participants must sign a HIIPA waiver. HIIPA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is the federal law that protects customers’ health information. RxRights is concerned that CVS will share its prescription sales data with pharmaceutical companies, assisting them in use direct to consumer marketing that can lead to higher medicine costs.
Check out the full blog post on RxRights.org.
