"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor—your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you consider evil?
"ATLAS SHRUGGED" by Ayn Rand
Re: IMPORTATION OF DRUGS FROM CANADA
Mary Lou:
A. The National Health Service (NHS)
A friend of mine, Larry, served a summer stint as an intern at the NHS some 40 years ago. He tells a story of working for a GS-16 NHS "executive" who had as his principal regular function the preparation of a statistical report read only by NHS executives higher up. In preparation, this man would laboriously make his own graph paper with pen and ruler!
Yes, it was 40 years ago, but nothing has changed.
Recently (within the last 2 months) the WSJ had a story about 2 democratic (!) U.S. Senators who complained that taxpayers were not getting their money's worth from the NHS, that the NHS budget had doubled in the last 4 -5 years, and they were not able to see what if anything the NHS had accomplished with the extra money.
The long and the short: government is a moocher, not a producer.
B. The Cost of Bringing Forth New Drugs
Of every 5000 potential new drugs - that reach the stage where they are used in animal trials - only 5 make it to clinical human trials. Of these 5, only 1 will be given final approval by the FDA. <http://www.thelabrat.com/review/drugsimportcanada.shtml>
In 2001, the average cost of bringing out a new drug was $802 million. This cost, adjusted for inflation, had risen by 250% since 1987. In the 1990s, research costs had risen each year by 7.4%, but the cost of clinical trials had risen 12% per year. <http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/pd120301b.html>
C. International Stealing From Drug Companies
THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT U.S. CONSUMERS PAY FOR NEARLY ALL NEW DRUG DEVELOPMENT REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE COMPANY IS U.S. OR FOREIGN
The marginal cost of manufacturing a particular "pill" - apart from development costs - may only be a few cents.
There is a clause in the Uruguay Round of the World Trade Agreement - agreed to by the U.S. - that arguably allows countries to violate (i.e., steal) the patent of a pharmaceutical company which "unreasonably" refuses to sell its patent to them. The most aggressive country in the world in using this clause is Brazil, followed closely by CANADA and Germany. Companies are forced to sell their drugs in these countries for only slightly more than the marginal cost of production.
It hardly needs mentioning that the prices pharmaceutical companies receive in Canada comes nowhere close to allowing these companies to recover their development costs, let alone a profit. If drugs from Canada - and elsewhere - can be freely imported into the U.S., the flow of miracle drugs will surely dry up.
Bruce |
