Trump Rx is just another Trump con

Upon examination, it’s little different from anything else with Trump’s name on it. More here.

As a primary care physician who has spent decades helping patients navigate the byzantine complexities of our healthcare system, I researched the new White House unveiling of the self-referential TrumpRx (ew) with a mix of hope and concern. President Trump proclaimed it “one of the most transformative healthcare initiatives of all time,” promising Americans dramatic discounts on prescription medications. But after examining the platform this morning and reviewing independent analyses, I’m deeply skeptical that this initiative will meaningfully help my patients—and worried it may actually harm them…

But here’s the first thing that concerns me: these astronomical discount percentages are calculated against list prices, the sticker prices that virtually no one actually pays. It’s like a car dealership advertising 30% off MSRP when the real negotiated price was always going to be much lower. This mathematical sleight-of-hand creates the illusion of historic savings while obscuring what patients truly pay through insurance copays or existing discount programs, which is often much lower already.

Perhaps most troubling is what multiple independent analyses have revealed: approximately half of the 43 drugs featured on TrumpRx already have significantly cheaper generic alternatives available elsewhere. - Daily Kos

New report on Big Pharma price gouging

I've long considered Big Pharma to be one of the three absolutely worst "Bigs" of all, along with Big Ag and Big Weapons.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday published the second part of its investigation into how prescription drug middlemen are marking up the prices of specialty generic drugs dispensed at their affiliated pharmacies by hundreds—and in some cases, thousands—of percent, underscoring what advocates say is the need for urgent action by policymakers.

The FTC's second interim staff report on consolidated pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) found that the three largest of these middlemen—CVS Health's Caremark Rx, Cigna Group's Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth Group's OptumRx—"marked up two specialty generic cancer drugs by thousands of percent and then paid their affiliated pharmacies hundreds of millions of dollars of dispensing revenue in excess of estimated acquisition costs for each drug annually." - Common Dreams

Ongoing shortages of essential, basic medications

This article nails it, if you ask me.

Patients and their providers increasingly face limited or nonexistent supplies of drugs, many of which treat essential conditions such as cancer, heart disease and bacterial infections. The American Society of Health System Pharmacists now lists over 300 active shortages, primarily of decades-old generic drugs no longer protected by patents.

While this is not a new problem, the number of drugs in short supply has increased in recent years, and the average shortage is lasting longer, with more than 15 critical drug products in short supply for over a decade. Current shortages include widely known drugs such as the antibiotic amoxicillin; the heart medicine digoxin; the anesthetic lidocaine; and the medicine albuterol, which is critical for treating asthma and other diseases affecting the lungs and airways.

What’s going on?

I’m a health economist who has studied the pharmaceutical industry for the past 15 years. I believe the drug shortage problem illustrates a major shortcoming of capitalism. While costly brand-name drugs often yield high profits to manufacturers, there’s relatively little money to be made in supplying the market with low-cost generics, no matter how vital they may be to patients’ health. - The Conversation