Inaugural post
Hello everyone! Well this is pharmalog, and it is what it is, a place to discuss, vent, bitch whatever have you about the pharmaceutical industry or medicine at large. I am not your typical blogger, I am not a computer person, I really don't have time to do this sort of thing but damn it there are times (many times) when I just want to wipe the grin off of a rude ass doctor's face, or kick the crap out of the rep who keeps throwing away my samples, or slap silly the fools in the office who think I can solve the "high cost of prescription drugs" for them from my lowly position. Frankly I get tired of it and I am sure you do to. I thought this would be more constructive then the hour long cell phone calls I have with other reps all the time discussing the ridiculous ranking systems all these companies use to pit us against each other, and the eerie lack of disclosure about script tracking and all of the other bullshit that we all deal with. Or if you are a doctor tell us about the retarded rep that wasted your God damned time, or insulted you, talk about whatever the hell you want to that is what Pharmalog is all about. Patients, we want to here from you as well, if you think Vioxx is a great drug like I do and should not have been pulled from the market because it truly helped millions of people just say so, that is why Pharmalog exists. So here it is, enjoy, I look forward to meeting many of you and sharing our stories and feelings about this amazing and unique system we all operate within.
posted by glycine11 @ 10:19 PM
2 Comments:
Interesting idea you have here. Hope that it will take off for ya. I'll just throw in a few cents of my own. I too despise the pharmaceutical industry, along with the insurance companies. I'm a young adult who developed asthma about 10 years ago. Each year it has progressively gotten worse. I had taken a particular medication for nearly all of those 10 years and only had to pay my $8 copay. One day last year the insurance company decided to jack the copay up to $50 and even that was getting the medication for a steal compared to what the pharm ind. charges. I discussed changing meds with my Dr. and he too was very displeased with how we are being screwed by the pharmaceutical industry. He named several medications that could be obtained in Canada for a fraction of what we have to pay in the US. The same medication, same distributer. So here I sit, recently out of the hospital due to asthma complications. I was not able to afford the one medication that did work for me and in the process of trying to find a cheaper one my asthma got much worse. These companies should be ashamed of themselves. They are playing around with our lives.
I have a couple of things to say that might interest you. First the idea of Canadian drugs will probably be a thing of the past real soon. This is due to the fact that the canadian government is going to cut it off due to what they say are legal issues with how the rx's are processed between US and Canadian doctors. That being said The US will essentially become a pharmaceutical island again because the one truly safe and affordable avenue for prescription drugs will be cut off. Beyond that the cost of the copay is very similar to how car insurance works. Let me illustrate this with a story. A few years ago experienced a couple of break-ins to my car. The first time I had to have the driver side window replaced I went through my insurance and they charged the glass company $350 for the window with supposedly no cost to me except a nice bump in my premium. The next time I said screw it and told the glass people I was going to pay for the window fully expecting to pay $350. To my surprise my bill was $50. The moral of the story is the middle man the glass company charged the faceless customer $300 more than the guy off the street who would tell his friends about them. A similar thing happens in the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries although it is flipped on it's head. The insurance companies have huge influence over the future of a new drug, if they decide to cover a drug on their formulary they can open a path for the success of the drug so the companies offer them steep discounts in order to gain favorable position on the formulary. That being said the pharmaceutical companies need to make that money back and I believe it is made on the backs of the people who pay full price at the pharmacy. So to the pharmaceutical industry the patient is the faceless customer because they don't have to please you like they do the insurance companies, very sad but true. I wish I could give you a happier answer but for as long as the insurance middle man exists the end consumer will always get screwed.
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