Here We Go Again: Another Once-Affordable Medication Now Too Expensive for Most Consumers

Remember Martin Shkreli? He is the CEO who is responsible for raising the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to over $700 a pill. He isn't the only CEO to do this, and it now looks like other drug companies are following the same disastrous behavior.

Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals, has now raised the price of the life-saving EpiPen to over $320 per pen. As a person who is allergic to bees and depends on this medication in case of an emergency, this price increase makes it almost impossible for me to afford it.

It isn't just a select few greedy CEOs profiteering from these dramatic price increases, either. There seems to be a trend in the pharmaceutical industry of hiking prices of older medications to shockingly high levels. It has been reported that dozens of name-brand prescription drugs have doubled and even quadrupled in price since the first of 2015. The price increases are not due to new formulations in the drugs themselves, either. It is just to increase the company’s profits while hurting the very people who depend on them.

Should the price of prescription medications be regulated to keep these life-saving drugs affordable and more readily available?

American consumers spend more for prescription drugs than most other nations in the world. There is growing concern over recent price increases, and lawmakers are considering federally regulating the price of prescription medications to prevent price gouging.

Many believe that regulation will help keep medicine affordable for the masses, while others believe regulation will stifle the much needed profits drug companies need for research and development of new medications. I agree that pharmaceutical companies must make a profit to continue research and bring new and emerging products to the forefront. I also completely disagree with the excessive increases in cost to these commonly available older medications that are inexpensive to manufacture.

Is most of the profit used for research and development of new medications? I seriously doubt it. I think most of the recent price increases is due to CEOs trying to make the stock holders happy and increasingly wealthy while we, the common folk, pay the price.