Drug Prices

Big Pharma Drug Patent Abuses Cost Medicare Billions: Report
Medicare has been given the ability to negotiate the price of some drugs, but those lower prices won't go into effect until the beginning of 2026 for some reason, prolonging the time that people still have to pay the higher cost for no real; reason.  This shows whose interests are being prioritized here.  There is another problem though that is allowing drug manufacturers to effectively steal billions of dollars from consumers, the practice of "patent abuses and evergreening tactics.  The report defines "evergreening tactics" as the practice of "patenting trivial and/or obvious modifications of existing medications to lengthen exclusivity on branded medicines."  This is done to extend monopoly powers and profiteering in ways that go against the spirit of the market and amount to theft.

"This is paramount, Public Citizen argues, given the scope of lost savings. The group estimates that Medicare will lose somewhere between $4.9 and $5.4 billion in savings that should have accrued to taxpayers if four out of the 10 drugs did not take advantage of patenting tactics, and therefore would have faced greater competition prior to negotiation.

"These lost savings are nearly as much as what Medicare is expected to save if negotiated prices go into effect on all of the selected drugs in the first year of the program ($6 billion)," according to the report."  For one medication alone, "Medicare would have spent $1,891,500,836 less on a net basis had enrollees been able to use lower-cost alternatives by the time negotiated prices go into effect on January 1, 2026."

Referenced in this article:
Analysis Shows Amgen’s Gaming Of Patent System Cost Medicare More Than a Billion in Savings Over Less Than Four Years

Despite Profit Surge, Novartis Still Suing to Prevent Lower Drug Prices
"Novartis seeing its profits double serves as another reminder that Big Pharma can afford to negotiate more reasonable prices for seniors," Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk said in a statement responding to the company's financial report."  The company is suing to fight price negotiations laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act, despite the fact that it's making an extremely high level of profit.  The greed driving this clearly has nothing to do with the ability of the company to function or to create or sell new drugs. 

Brand-Name Drugs Increase Cost But Not Patient Satisfaction
“Generic medications are manufactured to be equivalent in all ways (except appearances) to brand-name medications,” he said in an e-mail. “Unfortunately, many patients and physicians are convinced to spend more and use the brand-name medication by marketing initiatives, including advertisements on the television or drug coupons that promise similar out-of-pocket expenses for the higher-cost brand-name medications.”
"Goetz said he doesn’t know why generics sometimes have higher satisfaction than brand-name drugs, but he offered one theory. “People might have outsize expectations for what a heavily marketed drug is going to do for them,” he said. “They may watch the commercials and think that any given drug is going to be the answer to all their problems. And the reality of medicine and the reality of pharmacology is that every drug has some benefits for some people and some side effects for some people, and that’s the whole balance.”
"Generics may have another advantage over newly launched drugs in the same class. By definition, a generic has been on the market a long time, so doctors know how it works, and any major problems or side effects would have already surfaced. By comparison, the studies that help brand-name drugs win approval may not have picked up safety problems or side effects that, while uncommon, can represent an issue once a medicine is taken widely."

Iodine (GoodRx)

Prescriber Checkup (Medicare’s popular prescription-drug program serves more than 42 million people and pays for more than one of every four prescriptions written nationwide. Use this tool to find and compare doctors and other providers in Part D)
FAQ: What You Need to Know About Prescriber Checkup

Doctor given prison for taking kickbacks to prescribe risky drug
"A Chicago doctor who was once the nation's most prolific prescriber of the risky antipsychotic drug clozapine was sentenced to nine months in prison Friday for taking cash, vacation trips and other kickbacks from the drug's manufacturers.  Dr. Michael Reinstein, the subject of a 2009 Tribune-ProPublica joint investigation, admitted to pocketing nearly $600,000 in benefits over the years for prescribing various forms of clozapine, known as a risky drug of last resort, to hundreds of mentally ill patients in his care."
"When he pleaded guilty last year, Reinstein also settled a massive civil lawsuit brought by the U.S. attorney's office alleging that he submitted more than 140,000 false Medicare and Medicaid claims as part of the kickback scheme. He was ordered to pay more than $3.7 million in penalties to the U.S. government and the state of Illinois."

Risky, Overused Medications Prescribed Far Less Often in the Aloha State
"Medicare patients in Hawaii take fewer opioid painkillers and fewer antibiotics, on average, than those in any other state. Physicians and health policy experts cite demographics and healthier lifestyles as possible reasons why."

Medicare’s Failure to Track Doctors Wastes Billions on Name-Brand Drugs

PRESCRIBERS WITH QUESTIONABLE PATTERNS IN MEDICARE PART D
This is a study cited in the article above

Medicare Drug Program Fails to Monitor Prescribers, Putting Seniors and Disabled at Risk
"some doctors and other health professionals across the country prescribe large quantities of drugs that are potentially harmful, disorienting or addictive. Federal officials have done little to detect or deter these hazardous prescribing patterns."
"Doctors barred by state Medicaid programs for questionable prescribing remain able to dole out the same drugs under Medicare. So can dozens of practitioners who have been criminally charged or convicted for problem prescribing, or who have been disciplined by state medical boards."
"In lawsuits and disciplinary records, state and federal authorities cite a number of reasons that doctors prescribe improperly. Some run mills where patients get prescriptions if they pay cash for a visit. Others have relationships with drug companies that influence what they prescribe. Regulators say some doctors choose inappropriate medications under pressure from families or facilities.  Research also shows that doctors often don't keep up with the latest studies and drug warnings."