Big Pharma, Big Robbery: Your Taxes Help Fund Their Profits

I bet you love having your taxes paying for something even if you don't want it? You must also really love big pharma that's being funded by tax dollars and raking in the profits from high costs, right?

_{Chris Potter/flickr, CC BY 2.0}

Big pharma is out to make money. Some things are ridiculous, like a new FDA approved L-glutamine based drug called Endari that costs $44,000 for a years supply. But anyone can get L-glutamine for the same health benefits for $120 for a year's supply. In years past we even saw pills get pushed to exaggerated highs, like Daraprim which costs $750 per pill, paid by Medicaid at a whopping average of $35,000.

Big pharma is gouging us with their prices. And this big robbery is compounded by the fact that the government is helping the industry fund research with your taxes. The New Republic has gone into the history of how we got here. Some of the highlights are that of 210 meds that were approved from 2010-2016 by the FDA, they all got funding from the government, coming out of research done in government or university labs.

In times past, companies didn't get the patents for drugs the government funded in their labs: the government kept those patents. Things changed in 1968 to allow the billion dollar profits of the industry to emerge. The Institutional Patent Agreement program set up by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) allowed non-profits like universities to claim licenses for drugs developed using government funds.

Before that, inventors using NIH funds had to assign patents to the governments. But now they could just sell them to the big pharma industry. In 1980, the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act granted universities, non-profits and small business the rights to own, patent and commercialize inventions that were carried out with government money.

The universities get the government money to do research, invent new drugs, or just take other substances and attach "proven" uses to them, and sell the patents to big pharma. The government takes your money and gives it to universities to fund research, and then the big winners are the drug companies who make billions in the end. It's quite a lovely turnover for them.

1980 also also saw a change in biotechnology. The Supreme Court decided that genes could altered and developed into genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which could then be patented. Most of us know how some of that genius turned out for Monsanto on one end, and the poor farmers who got sued on the other end.

More "Acts" get passed that favor big pharma and their profit-seeking price gouging. Like the Orphan Drug Act which provides incentives to big pharma companies to develop drugs for rare diseases. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 1992 gave big pharma more power, as they funded the FDA which is supposed to oversee the industry (no conflicts there right?). The FDA Act of 1997 then made it easier to advertise directly to consumers.

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The years of changes have led to the drug monopolies that were fostered, and now are protected, by the government. Many of these drugs are dangerous, and/or don't work as claimed. But people believe int he hope and dream that is marketed to them. On the flip-side, natural alternatives are demeaned and sometimes demonized. Federal restrictions and regulations come into play, all to protect the drug companies the their bottom line.

They've done it with cannabis for so long. Now that proof of it's benefits is being cemented in scientific research, big pharma is capitalizing on it and making drugs from cannabis. Supplements are being turned into drugs and selling them for a hefty profit compared to what it would be if there was a real free market. And now they want to take supplements away, supplanting natural remedies, further controlling us and forcing us into the corrupt clutches of big pharma even further.

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References:

• Taxpayer Money Used to Fund Drug Research – Drug Companies Robbing Americans
• FDA Turned Your $10 Supplement into a $40,000 Drug
• Drug made famous by Shkreli’s 5,000% price hike is still $750 a pill
• How Big Pharma Was Captured by the One Percent
• What It Means for Technology Commercialization

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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