To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (304202 ) 9/25/2006 3:25:07 AM From: tejek Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1578491 Ted, > Canada has 22 million people vs the US's 270 million. Just by the numbers there would be a lot less new drugs out of Canada.....so your point is rather meaningless. OK then, let me make my point in another way. What would happen if America imposed the same prescription drug price controls that Canada has? Simply by the numbers, America's health care costs would go way down. But then companies like Pfizer, Bristol-Myer, etc. would simply go out of business, as the price controls would more than wipe out their profits. Who's going to take over research for new drugs? We don't need price controls......we have the FDA. People are going to Canada among other things to get drugs that were approved by Europe years ago. As for the pharm. companies that you are expressing so much concern over.....and I can only hope that someday you will express half that concern for the poor of this country.........it will mean their margins will get tighter and they will not be as profitable. I have to assume you have no idea what a rip off American pharm. companies perpetuate on the American consumer. They tend to have very healthy margins. For an example, LLY has a profit margin of 21%; by comparison, INTC's is 18%. Until a drug goes generic which doesn't happen for years because of patent controls, most drugs cost a fortune. There was a woman in Seattle whose health insurance refused to pay for a new cancer drug she needed for her treatment. The weekly dose cost several thousand dollars.........years from now, when it goes generic, the cost probably will be hundreds of dollars. As for the woman, she had no choice but to forego the treatment.....she died shortly thereafter. Think its an unusual case? Think again. It happens all the time. Why do you think we have trouble getting flu vaccine? Pharm. companies can't be bothered.......there's not enough money in it. The major problem facing some pharm. these days results from their patents running out while their pipelines are devoid of promising new drugs. But when they are operating at optimum levels, they make money hand over fist.