patrick.net

And from India, and probably everywhere else, and end the Rx requirement. The Constitution authorizes the federal government to protect patents for a limited time, but adults should be allowed to buy any generic drug regardless of where made.

The CEO of Amazon said the site would sell "anything legal," and IMO that should happen. Medical costs would plummet if ppl could buy cheaply online whatever they need. That is of course the reason why it isn't allowed. Pretenses about "patient protection" are obviously false. Worst case scenario, if an American pharmacy or website starts selling fake products, misrepresenting them as genuine, then the American sellers can be held accountable for fraud. If the seller supplies the item as described, in the condition represented, then that should be good enough.

OK, who are the US Congressmen opposed to importing prescription drugs, so we can call them out right here?

rando says

OK, who are the US Congressmen opposed to importing prescription drugs, so we can call them out right here?

Several votes relate to this issue:

Recently, in the Senate:

Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blunt (R-MO)
Booker (D-NJ)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Capito (R-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coons (D-DE)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Daines (R-MT)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Moran (R-KS)
Murray (D-WA)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Tester (D-MT)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Warner (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Young (R-IN)

So those are the evil Congressmen who are blocking imports of drugs from Canada, right?

Those are Senators, and the Senate is one House of Congress. I'm looking for a list of Representatives. One complication: bills tend to bundle discrete issues, so there's always deniability, they can say they objected to some other part of the bill. I haven't seen a clean vote on the question.

Maybe that should be a PatNet Proposal: people could petition regarding a specific proposal, and if they get enough signatures require a roll call vote in both houses of Congress on the verbatim topic of the petition, without amendments.

Didn't know they had that sleazy way of avoiding accountability. Thanks for the education.

In the House of Representatives, Keith Ellison's bill "allowing the importation and reimportation of certain drugs" has only seven co-sponsors:

Rep. Rohrabacher, Dana [R-CA-48]
Rep. Schakowsky, Janice D. [D-IL-9]
Rep. Grijalva, Raul M. [D-AZ-3]
Rep. Hastings, Alcee L. [D-FL-20]
Rep. Nadler, Jerrold [D-NY-10]
Rep. Peterson, Collin C. [D-MN-7]
Rep. DeLauro, Rosa L. [D-CT-3]

It was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health in June 2015, no further action.

Republican Members

Gene Green (Texas - 29) - Ranking Member
Eliot Engel (New York - 16)
Janice Schakowsky (Illinois - 09)
G. K. Butterfield (North Carolina - 01)
Doris Matsui (California - 06)
Kathy Castor (Florida - 14)
John Sarbanes (Maryland - 03)
Ben Lujan (New Mexico - 03)
Kurt Schrader (Oregon - 05)
Joseph P. Kennedy III (Massachusetts - 04)
Tony Cárdenas (California - 29)
Anna Eshoo (California - 18)
Diana DeGette (Colorado - 01)
Frank Pallone (New Jersey - 06) - Ex Officio

That's just more proof we should do it.

If drug companies can make them here, ship them to Canada and still make a profit at the lower Canadian prices, it shows how much they are gouging Americans.

It appears to not be party based.
Interesting if you can line up the states/senators with the states the drugs are manufactured in

Patrick says

Drug companies spend more on advertising drugs than on research.

Not only that, but the people who actually do the research, the STEM worker, does not reap the benefits of the advancement. Their work is owned by idiot parasites who could not understand the work to save their lives. The profits go to people who did not discover or refine the drugs. As such, high profit margins do not incentivize the advancement of drugs, and quite often do the opposite, causing information to not be shared and even oppressed if it lowers the exclusivity of patented drugs.

Socialize the cost of research. Get rid of patents. And financial reward the actual biologists and chemists responsible for making the advancements. Cut out the executives. They are just fat.

Patrick says

Allow import of prescription drugs from Canada

You can get some nice jet and psycho from Canada. Even grape mentats. Only a few bottlecaps.

rando says

So those are the evil Congressmen who are blocking imports of drugs from Canada, right?

A lot more R's than D's. Yes, both parties are evil. One is much worse.

Dan8267 says

You can get some nice jet and psycho from Canada. Even grape mentats. Only a few bottlecaps.

Translation?

Ironman says

Do you have any clue what it costs to develop a new drug and get it through FDA approval?

It costs much less than the drug companies spend on advertising.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/big-pharmaceutical-companies-are-spending-far-more-on-marketing-than-research/?ref=patrick.net

Dan8267 says

Socialize the cost of research. Get rid of patents. And financial reward the actual biologists and chemists responsible for making the advancements. Cut out the executives. They are just fat.

That's what communist countries did. They ended up inventing nothing.

Patrick says

Allow import of prescription drugs from Canada

And from every other country on the planet. Real competition will force the drug prices down.
There are 7 billion people in the world with rising standards of living to share the costs of R&D. Americans should not be the only ones footing the bill.

rando says

Dan8267 says

You can get some nice jet and psycho from Canada. Even grape mentats. Only a few bottlecaps.

Translation?

Does no one get my references? You realize you can Google them and find out what obscure pop culture reference I'm making. PewDiePie would have gotten the reference.

www.youtube.com/embed/00--7be68gw

My Fallout 4 character made most of her money making and selling drugs like a post-apocalyptic Walter White. And if you get know that reference, Google it.

Strategist says

That's what communist countries did. They ended up inventing nothing.

So if one piss poor attempt at an approach is haphazardly done by a corrupt and ineffective government, you conclude the approach is wrong rather than the implementation. No wonder you suck at business. American capitalism has failed at providing for the best interests of society as well. So are you going to apply the same standard?

Dan8267 says

Strategist says

That's what communist countries did. They ended up inventing nothing.

So if one piss poor attempt at an approach is haphazardly done by a corrupt and ineffective government, you conclude the approach is wrong rather than the implementation.

May i remind you of the definition of insanity?

Dan8267 says

No wonder you suck at business. American capitalism has failed at providing for the best interests of society as well. So are you going to apply the same standard?

American capitalism has provided us with the best standard of living in the world. The whole world wants to emigrate to the US.

Strategist says

American capitalism has provided us with the best standard of living in the world.

No, it didn't. Commerce, science, and technology did that DESPITE capitalism. There is nothing about separating people into producers and owners and giving all the power to owners that provides for a high standard of living.

Dan8267 says

Strategist says

American capitalism has provided us with the best standard of living in the world.

No, it didn't. Commerce, science, and technology did that DESPITE capitalism. There is nothing about separating people into producers and owners and giving all the power to owners that provides for a high standard of living.

The communists had "Commerce, science, and technology" too. What good did it do them? It takes capitalism, entrepreneurship and freedom to take full advantage of science and technology.

curious2 says

And from India, and probably everywhere else, and end the Rx requirement. The Constitution authorizes the federal government to protect patents for a limited time, but adults should be allowed to buy any generic drug regardless of where made.

The CEO of Amazon said the site would sell "anything legal," and IMO that should happen. Medical costs would plummet if ppl could buy cheaply online whatever they need. That is of course the reason why it isn't allowed. Pretenses about "patient protection" are obviously false. Worst case scenario, if an American pharmacy or website starts selling fake products, misrepresenting them as genuine, then the American sellers can be held accountable for fraud. If the seller supplies the item as described, in the condition represented, then that should be good enough.

I am really curious which User Disliked that comment. We live in an era when "Americans skip cancer meds because they cannot afford them", and at least one PatNet User wants that to continue. It takes a special sort of sadist, or at the very least a ruthlessly sociopathic profiteer, to intervene between a willing seller and a willing buyer, whose very life is at stake, and say no. It takes a deeply deluded fool to imagine that prohibition is for the buyer's own good.

Strategist says

The communists had "Commerce, science, and technology" too. What good did it do them?

Evidently quite a lot. China is kicking our ass and taking over the world.

Strategist says

It takes capitalism, entrepreneurship and freedom to take full advantage of science and technology.

There is absolutely no evidence that it takes capitalism, i.e. dividing people into producers and owners and giving the owners all the power, to take full advantage of science and technology. Show me one single thread of evidence to support that ridiculous claim.

Dan8267 says

China is kicking our ass and taking over the world.

For now; china has a lot of octogenarians and over 350 million smokers. If China overtakes US it will probably be due to advances in automation

I would not call China a communist country. I would call it a capitalistic economy with some socialist tendencies governed by an elite one-party system that is protectionist in nature and not willing to share its monopoly on political power.

MMR says

I would not call China a communist country.

Yet it is ruled by a communist party that centralizes planning of the economy including the large scale construction of entire cities.

This isn't an endorsement of communism, but simply a refutation of strategist's dogma of capitalism good, communism bad, no alternatives exist.

The fact is that capitalism and communism are virtually identical economic system and become identical taken to their purest extreme.

Dan8267 says

Yet it is ruled by a communist party that centralizes planning of the economy including the large scale construction of entire cities.

The difference between China and the soviet bloc is that one embraces capitalistic tendencies more

Put differently, what made the Chinese flavor of communism successful where the soviet version failed?

MMR says

Put differently, what made the Chinese flavor of communism successful where the soviet version failed?

The outsourcing of industry to China.

Dan8267 says

MMR says

Put differently, what made the Chinese flavor of communism successful where the soviet version failed?

The outsourcing of industry to China.

Lol, very true!

In the end, only one American will be doing research. That man is Rin because he's financially independent. Everyone else is a postdoc/academic bitch or some industry slave boy.

Dan8267 says

Patrick says

Allow import of prescription drugs from Canada

You can get some nice jet and psycho from Canada.

You can also bonk hoes up in Canada.

The number of people living with HIV in Canada (prevalence) is increasing.1
According to 2014 national HIV estimates:

An estimated 75,500 Canadians were living with HIV at the end of 2014.*
This represents an increase of 6,700 people (9.7%) since 2011.
The HIV prevalence rate is 212.0 per 100,000 people living in Canada.
HIV prevalence increased during the 1980s, slowed down in the mid-1990s, but began to rise again in the late 1990s. This increase is a result of both new HIV infections and fewer deaths due to effective treatment options.
Just over one in five people living with HIV in Canada are unaware that they have HIV.1

http://www.catie.ca/en/fact-sheets/epidemiology/epidemiology-hiv-canada

Rin says

You can also bonk hoes up in Canada.

Dan8267 says

Strategist says

The communists had "Commerce, science, and technology" too. What good did it do them?

Evidently quite a lot. China is kicking our ass and taking over the world.

They practice capitalism. 100+ billionaires in the country.

Dan8267 says

There is absolutely no evidence that it takes capitalism, i.e. dividing people into producers and owners and giving the owners all the power, to take full advantage of science and technology. Show me one single thread of evidence to support that ridiculous claim.

The evidence is all around you. Everything man made that improved your standard of living was the result of capitalism. Communism was a total failure. It took less than a hundred years for it to collapse, while capitalism thrives.

Dan8267 says

The fact is that capitalism and communism are virtually identical economic system and become identical taken to their purest extreme.

LOL. ha ha ha. Most bizarre statement in the history of mankind.

rando says

Dan8267 says

MMR says

Put differently, what made the Chinese flavor of communism successful where the soviet version failed?

The outsourcing of industry to China.

Lol, very true!

It's also yet another inherent failure of capitalism.

Remember, capitalism is merely the mechanism of giving control over production and the distribution of the revenue of production to an owner class that does not produces but simply controls things. These owners will always put their short-term financial interests over the financial interests of everyone else, over the national security interests of their country, and over the economic well-being of their society even when doing so will cause long-term financial devastation to the owners themselves. They cannot avoid doing the last thing because of the Tragedy of the Commons. If one owner does not sell out the economy's long term interest, another owner will.

The very idea of running an economy on the selfish and short-sighted interests of the greediest and laziest 1% of the population is utterly ridiculous. Anyone who actually knows and understands the definition of capitalism would not support it. Only people brainwashed into thinking that capitalism is commerce, free markets, and trade support the dogma.

Strategist says

Dan8267 says

The fact is that capitalism and communism are virtually identical economic system and become identical taken to their purest extreme.

LOL. ha ha ha. Most bizarre statement in the history of mankind.

It only sounds ridiculous to you because you do not understand the definitions of capitalism or communism. In their purest forms, the two systems differ in nomenclature only. One calls the owners "party members" while the other calls the owners "entrepreneurs", but they are functionally identical and use the exact same mechanics.

Think about it this way, can you name ANY economic system other than capitalism, communism, and feudalism? No, you can't. There's a reason for that, and it's not that there aren't any other possible economic systems. There are literally an infinite number of economic systems. And yet, you could only name two, and now three that I've mentioned feudalism.

Being brainwashed into the cult of capitalism is not different than being brainwashed into the cult of communism. The owners brainwash the public so that the public become compliant against their own interests. This is why many people, including you, cannot even imagine what an economic system other than capitalism or communism looks like. But hey, go ahead and prove me wrong. Describe an alternative system. Take a few hours to think about it. Still can't do it, can you? That's a red flag.

Economics became a religion in the 19th century and has been so ever since. It's time economics stops being a religion and starts being a science and engineering discipline, subject to the scientific method of empirical verification and good engineering practices.

It's quite a stretch to label 2017 USA as a Capitalist country.

The term Lemon Socialist is much more accurate.

Good luck with that discussion

Dan8267 says

Socialize the cost of research. Get rid of patents. And financial reward the actual biologists and chemists responsible for making the advancements. Cut out the executives. They are just fat.

Usually the research IS socialized, paid for by a government grant. Then the results are sold to a big pharma company which refines them into a product and charges big money selling it back to the government.
Seem insane? That's because it is.
Research costs don't explain this sordid little story...

errc says

It's quite a stretch to label 2017 USA as a Capitalist country.

The term Lemon Socialist is much more accurate.

Socialism is an economic tactic, not an economic system. It is not mutually exclusive with the mechanism of capitalism, even if the interests served by socialism conflict with the interests of owners. There is no mutually exclusivity between capitalism and socialism.

Think about it this way. It is utterly impossible to run any society without socialism. There would be no army, no public infrastructure, no police, no court systems, no funding of any government activity. It would be literally anarchy, an anarchy always succumbs to the first warlord that decides he wants to seize control. After all, there is no organized and funded resistance.

So you could not have a society without socialism, and thus you cannot have a capitalist country without socialism.

Ironman says

How do we import drugs from Canada when they are physically made here in the US?

Lots of generics (where possible) sold by Canadian pharmacies from all over the world, especially India.

Quigley says

Research costs don't explain this sordid little story...

"Research costs" are a lie told to justify policies that are the directly and solely caused by greed. It's big pharma's equivalent of "there aren't enough STEM workers, so we have to import $30k/yr workers".