Posted by yxibow on October 15, 2006, at 14:17:41
In reply to Psych drug ads in the US, posted by ed_uk on October 15, 2006, at 6:26:47
> Have a look at these (there are two pages)......
>
> http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://static.flickr.com/5/10416858_8e10fec178_m.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/apana/page2/&h=240&w=180&sz=16&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=464G-aa52zab2M:&tbnh=110&tbnw=83&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlimbitrol%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
>
> Ed
Yes, though the Zispin is the non US form of Remeron :)But its a multibillion dollar industry here... and you're paying for the ads, in part. Economy of course does drive things and I'm not saying drug companies shouldn't be paid for genuine innovation -- skipping the marketing it still takes in the hundreds of millions of dollars to create compounds in the lab; faster now with computerized models and genetic manipulation, but still. But some of these things really aren't innovative. Like Lexapro -- okay, someone figured out how to get the metabolite. Wellbutrin XR, Ambien CR -- wanted to protect the patent. Wellbutrin and Zyban, the same drug. Since countries like Canada have high taxation rates they can afford to set low drug prices nationally and not completely wreck the economy.
Don't get me wrong, there are definate problems with social medicine, among the 35 million people in Canada and the 60 million in Great Britain. And France, etc. One word. Triage.
But I believe in it -- how you implement it.. (staggering) with 300 million people (I'm old enough to remember this country when it had a bit more than 250 million.) I haven't the faintest idea. It would probably have to be a public-private partnership with the government propping up existing HMO and PPOs. But that's politics...-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:694956
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061011/msgs/695043.html