re: Republicans and Democrats vote down amendment that would allow for cheaper drugs

Those who voted it down did so due to drugs not meeting US federal safety standards. I can't argue against that.

If our standards are too strict, then those standards can be looked at and changed accordingly, but I don't mind standards being part of the process of importation.

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It says 'safe'. Since that leaves it up to the FDA to determine what is 'safe', which is basically what Booker would have asked for anyway, I don't understand his problem.

Unless his problem is simply the $240,000 that Pharma gave him. In which case I understand.

Also, as much as I am protectionist, labor to produce drugs in Canada cannot be substantially different from ours. Unless there are burdensome regulations to manufacture in the US, which they probably are, I don't see what the negative impact could be.

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It's not really about regulation and labor in the traditional sense - well, it sort of is and sort of isn't.

Essentially, an immense amount of the costs of R&D and the creation of the IP gets passed on to the American private health insurance customer (whether group or individual) and to a lesser degree, the American on the public insurance dole (Medicaid and Medicare).

Other countries' governments with the Beveridge or Bismarck or NHI models have massive purchasing power because of the size and scope of their "market", such as it is, and it's the only way that the pharma companies can get into the countries. Because the marginal cost of a pill is negligible, it still makes financial sense for them to drastically drop rates because it's either sell here or don't sell at all. Thus, the R&D costs have to covered by someone - you and me - else the drugs wouldn't be developed in the first place.

It'd be a cleaner and more permanent solution for us to take this to WIPO and bully the rest of the developed world into paying their fair share for the IP than it is to do one off agreements like this. We have the power to do this: some 80% of the world's pharma R&D and IP comes out of the U.S.

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Free trade is awesome. Pretending medicine is coming from Canada isn't giving perfect information to the consumer.

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This doesn't sound like a hard fix to develop a reliable vetting process.

You think Canada's govt pushes shite drugs on their citizens knowingly?
Or that they would simply pass on the shite drugs to the US

No one today knows or checks where their medicine is manufactured. If the problem is bad labeling then require a re-importation warning.

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I'm not a 21 CFF expert at all. At the same, arguing that allowing the FDA to craft rules around reimportation from Canada is somehow more risky than the FDA crafting rules to import directly from third world countries is ridiculous.

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If there are extra regulations on Canadian reimports, what happens to the cost of those drugs?

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Let you in on a litle secret. Those drugs that everyone is SOOOOOO worried about the safety of.......they buy them from the same guys that Walgreens, CVS or any of the independents in the US buys them from.

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This is what I thought. Canada just tells them they can't charge exorbitant prices. The US does the R&D Canada just buys the stuff.

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This is what I thought. Canada just tells them they can't charge exorbitant prices. The US does the R&D Canada just buys the stuff.

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So basically they want the US consumer to foot the entire bill for R&D , even though the rest of the world benefits from the fruits of our labor? Seems fair

If you need a straight line, just obtain two data points.

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If people want to lower drug costs,
1) stop taking unnecessary drugs
2) go for a walk once in a while
3) stop eating McDonald's
4) petition Congress to ditch AWP

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5) Concerted attack on other healthcare systems to start paying up for R&D. Pharma margins have been high in recent years - between 15 and 20% - but nowhere near enough to justify a 5X or 6X difference in wholesale price like you see between other OECD countries and the U.S. God help me, I don't like the guy, but this is an area where Trump's rhetoric and approach can actually work.