How Will The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Affect Prescription Drug Prices?

A bargain price... only 1 arm, 1 leg!

That question has a simple answer (.pdf) from Public Citizen, and it will not be to your liking, unless you are heavily invested in Big Pharma. Remember, the partnership will be international, so if you're in the US, e.g. in New England, and getting your drugs from Canada, you will probably be deprived of gaining any advantage via that option (which I believe is not legal even now for US citizens).

Have a nice day! [/sarcasm]

(H/T Robert Reich.)

Putting The Squeeze On The Old And The Ill: Generic Medication Prices Soar

Are you human? Are you old? Do you have chronic medical conditions? Are the prices of medications for those conditions climbing? Please read "Officials Question the Rising Costs of Generic Drugs" by Elisabeth Rosenthal at the NYT. Here's a sample:

...

Some of the rises have been huge, according to data released by the lawmakers. The price that hospitals and pharmacies pay for a bottle of 500 tablets of doxycycline, a decades-old antibiotic, rose to $1,849 in April, from $20 in October 2013. The price they pay for a bottle of pravastatin, a drug to lower cholesterol, rose to $196 from $27 in that same time. The price of a pill of digoxin, a centuries-old medicine that is irreplaceable for some cardiac patients, rose to $1.10 this summer from 11 cents in 2012.

...

Maybe you are of the 1% and don't have to use generics. Maybe you are determined to use brand-name drugs no matter what the cost, and are willing to skip some meals to afford them. But if neither of those statements describes you, sooner or later, you will need ongoing prescriptions of generic drugs... and yes, I take a handful twice a day. If you survive to old age, it's inevitable.

Cummings

Sanders

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) are mounting an effort in Congress to do something to control these egregious price increases. Perhaps you could get on Sanders's mailing list to track what you can do to help build support for the bill.

Prescription Meds The US Imports From China Are Under‑Inspected

Even I don't take THIS many...

night-cat at Daily Kos tells a chilling fact: China consistently ignores the US FDA's request for visas for more US inspectors to check out Chinese manufacturers of prescription medicines. This would be less scary if there were not a history of Chinese manufacturers substituting ineffective or even dangerous active ingredients in medications that actually made it through the supply chain and into US pharmacies. If you take generic meds... I certainly do; who has money for name-brand meds... please read this article.