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Tyler Williams

Ms. Billotte

English 12

11 November 2016

Government's Regulations? and the Use of Prescription Drugs in the United States

Government's control of the prescription drug market is not a good thing to be going on

within the United States. Regulation of prescription drugs in the United States makes a market

that profits the government because of its manufacturing and selling of the prescription drugs to

consumers within the United States. The government regulation towards the manufacturing,

testing, labeling, advertising, marketing, efficiency, and safety of the prescription drugs in the

united states makes them overused and overpriced to the American consumer. The government

should not be able to create prescription drug regulations and leave consumers stuck with paying

the bill.

In the 1980s, the government weakened and deregulated the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) which allowed new prescription drugs to be approved with tremendous

speed and little exploration, then in 1992 fees that were collected from the companies that sold

the prescription drugs became the major source of funding the (FDA) (Thompson 12). In 2000,

22% of all prescription drug spending in the country was paid by the government, every country

regulates the prices of prescription drugs but the U.S. does not (Frank). The Congress proscribe

Medicare from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. If a Medicare drug

benefit was added it would involve the government paying an additional 30% on drug spending

(Frank). Now if that would happen then the government would be able to regulate prices and
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probably more than half of the market. When the government is a purchaser and regulator in a

prescription drug market industry, with high fixed costs and low marginal costs, their

commitment is not always the best (Frank).

When the major purchaser of prescription drugs is the U.S. government and they do it

because of Medicaid, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the Department of Defense. Now

think about the profit that the government would be making from the medication they are selling

to consumers involved with these departments (Frank). The people within these departments are

often older. This would mean the older the person the more prescription drugs are sold to them.

This is also known as raking in the profit from veterans high prescription expenses. The power

of pharmaceutical companies has influenced Americans to be the most prescribed and medicated

people in the world. The reason why is because pharmaceutical companies literally invented new

diseases for their pills to treat, like the prescription medication Detrol which is used for

Overactive Bladder. The annual sales for this prescription drug is $1.2 billion (Thompson 9).

This means they just make drugs so they can make a profit from it. In return, it makes people

overmedicated and overcharged.

How is the American consumer overmedicated? The reason as of right now, 82% of

adults and more than half of the children in America now take at least one or more of a

medication in everyday life (Thompson 7). This also includes the 30% of the adults that are

taking five or more on a daily basis, and the 27% of the youth that are taking two or more on

daily agenda (Thompson 7). It is also said that every year Americans fill 3.5 billion prescriptions

from their doctor, this accounts for nearly half of the world's pharmaceutical market (Thompson

7). In 2004, about 2.5 million youth were taking Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder drugs.
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In just a decade, these sales of ADHD drugs have rose to a whopping 500% (Thompson 9).

These drug manufacturers force people to take prescription drugs, in 2000 they spent about $16

billion on promotional drugs and that's not even including the $2.5 billion they spent on the

direct-to-consumer advertising (Frank). When Big Pharmaceutical companies are added in the

picture, they spend $13 billion a year marketing drugs to the consumers and another $15 billion

to doctors hoping the doctors will prescribe the products they are given, this in return influences

policy makers and government agencies to take hold of prescription drugs and give them to

consumers to make the profit (Thompson 8).

Why are drug prices in the United States overpriced and a cheat in the economy? The

U.S. government sets the pharmaceutical companies rules and are told from their stockholders to

make the most money (Mohammad). When the government only pays retail for developing

new drugs and the U.S. consumer is stuck paying for it and not the government, the government

should not be the ones developing nor making a profit off of prescription drugs, the consumer

may be benefited from the issue because of diseases, but the americans should be the ones

profiting off of the market because they are the ones paying for them to be in this country and to

be used as a medication (Mohammad).

The U.S. prescription drug market is a $140 billion industry. The spending on drugs over

the past few years have been growing with the rate of 15-18% per year (Frank). The annual sales

for the pharmaceutical industry is $291 billion in the U.S. economy, which in return gives the

government the most quick way to make a profitable amount off of the selling of these

prescription drugs. Also, the amount of spending on these prescription drugs, makes it the fastest

growing category in healthcare (Thompson 7). In the year 2001 the industry alone spent about
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$30 billion on researching and the developing of products that have altered the treatment of

major diseases and their outcomes (Frank). American drug prices are so high in this country, that

the countries that are way more advanced than the U.S. have drugs prices that are 50% cheaper

than what we pay on a prescription drug. American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)

made the approximation that brand name prescription drugs in the U.S. have raised by 8 times of

what the general inflation rate was in 2013. Now when it comes to a treatment for cancer, might

as well cut off an arm and leg to get the treatment, the reason being the annual expense for a

recently developed drug cocktail for cancer costs a low of only $295,000 (Mohammad). Why is

it that much? Because it's the most major and common disease out there also making it the most

expensive and most profitable disease to be around the world. Question being is cancer more

profitable to cure or treat it? What costs more treating or curing cancer? Just think about it and

then think about the prescription drug market is it to help the consumer out with diseases or to

help out the government and making a profit off of it?

the review on the U.S Government regulation and the use of prescription drugs is not the

strongest. It is found to be that it is a scandal for the government to make a profit and to

brainwash the american consumer so then the consumers can get addicted to the prescription

drugs and then continually spend money on the prescription so then the government can always

make and will be making a profit like no other off the prescription drug market. The advertising

is just a way to bring in more younger people because they tell them that if you take this, the

effects are good and will make you better and be on top of the world right after you pay hundreds

of dollars just to get a script of something that is needed to stay alive. Everything about the

manufacturing of prescription drugs is just a scam. It is to sell drugs for double the price so then
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they can get their money back from what they had lost for the manufacturing of the prescription

drugs, but always make that double profit from the selling of them to, that's all because of the

government and their supposed regulations of prescription drugs. All there is to say is the

government should not be the ones controlling and regulating the prescription drug market

because they are the ones who use it to their advantage.

Works Cited

Frank, Richard. Government Commitment And Regulation of Prescription Drugs. Health

Affairs, May 2003, content.healthaffairs.org/content/22/3/46.full. Accessed 7 Nov. 2016.

Mohammad, Rafi. Its Time to Rein in Exorbitant Pharmaceutical Prices. Harvard Business

Review, 22 Sept. 2015,

hbr.org/2015/09/its-time-to-rein-in-exobitant-pharmaceutical-prices. Accessed 9 Nov.

2016.

Thompson, Tamara. Are Americans Overmedicated. At Issue Health, edited by Christine

Nasso, 2011. pp. 13 Sept. 2016.

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