Astronomical price of Mifepristone?

[Iodjini_dk]

Murphy clox said it. R&D for a drug can literally cost millions of dollars and they may only have 5-10 years to earn them before their patent expires. On top of this only a few drug candidates actually make it to the market. So in addition to R&D for this particular drug, the company spends millions working on drugs they are never able to sell.

Of course generic versions are preferable to the user. But as long as their patent lasts I dont find the price on patented drugs all that strange.

 

[Lolie]

I'm actually shocked to see people saying things like this, we shouldn't let women "get out of hand" aborting pregnancies they do not want? People should be allowed to do whatever they wish with their bodies, if you think an affordable price would encourage women to use mifepristone instead of condoms, I think you are ignoring the physiological and psychological discomfort associated with taking the drug, which I think would be enough of a deterrent against its use over other more immediate forms of contraception.
The idea of making 'legal heroin' expensive is equally wrong, most pharmaceutical opioids are already expensive via black market sources but that does not deter abuse, it just puts additional burdens on those who choose to (ab)use.

I'm actually vehemently pro-choice, but the question wasn't about what we'd like to see happen - it was about how a particular drug comes to be priced at a given level, and I'm enough of a realist to know that both commercial and political factors play into the accessibility of RU486 (there are a very limited number of doctors authorised to prescribe it here and that's due to us having had a deeply religious Health Minister at the time the drug was approved for use here).

In countries with a long history of using this drug, there doesn't seem to be an great increase in the overall number of abortions but there does seem to be a shift from surgical to medical abortions in the <9 weeks range. I'm not sure how the cost of medical vs surgical terminations compares in those countries though, and a number of them have totally different political environments when it comes to abortion.

 

[seep]

Quite a few (US) misconceptions in this thread thus far. Ripostes:

• The US patent for mifepristone expired in 2004.
• Danco Labs LLC is the only entity in the US allowed to wholesale mifepristone.
• Danco Labs LLC does nothing but wholesale mifepristone.
• Danco Labs LLC does not do R&D.
• The FDA recognizes no therapeutic equivalent to mifepristone.
• Drugs that can only be distributed by doctors are usually expensive.
• High-demand brands that have no competition are usually expensive.
• The price of prescription drugs in the U.S. is not determined by the government.

 

[hamhurricane]

Ah, that shines some light, or unshines false light on the problem.

I just recalled a riveting episode of a now discontinued FOX drama called Boston Public, (one of my favorite shows in middle school (back when I had a TV)) the vice principal suspected a student was dealing marijuana and decided to do a surprise locker search, to his horror he found the student was not dealing marijuana - but RU486! The abortion pill was being dealt to a girl pregnant with a child that was the product of an incestuous relationship with her father - who wished to harvest the infant's stem cells to treat a rare genetic disorder. She threw herself down a flight of stairs in the end.

 

[mad_scientist]

Also note that Big Pharma spends around twice as much on advertising and marketing as they do on R & D (according to some lecture on ethics in the pharmaceutical industry I saw last year), so justifying high drug prices by R & D expenses is somewhat facetious.

 

[theotherside]

Ah, that shines some light, or unshines false light on the problem.

I just recalled a riveting episode of a now discontinued FOX drama called Boston Public, (one of my favorite shows in middle school (back when I had a TV)) the vice principal suspected a student was dealing marijuana and decided to do a surprise locker search, to his horror he found the student was not dealing marijuana - but RU486! The abortion pill was being dealt to a girl pregnant with a child that was the product of an incestuous relationship with her father - who wished to harvest the infant's stem cells to treat a rare genetic disorder. She threw herself down a flight of stairs in the end.

[/QUOTE

Ohhh how I loved that show

 

[Turing Machine]

Wait..... What?