
Why people should be able to buy drugs approved in other countries - jseliger
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2017/02/14/why-people-should-be-able-to-buy-drugs-approved-in-other-countries/?utm_term=.6cbab4566c16
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senior_james
"Because the FDA restricts the importing of drugs from overseas if a version
is available domestically, patients are stuck with the new, expensive version"

They restrict the importing of drugs overseas because it takes around 3
billion and a decade to get a drug approved by the FDA. Drug companies also
only have 7 years to make up the cost of the 3 billion (before the patent
expires).

If they allowed the importing of drugs, overseas companies would just create
generics based on all of the R&D the US company put into it and they would
never be able to recoup their costs.

If you want cheaper drugs, make it cheaper to get FDA approval. This will also
add more competing companies and market forces will push the prices down.

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Neliquat
Exactly. The reporting lately is getting lazy and finger pointy.

