Why the Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019 is important

Determination of drug prices by Democrats has not helped everyone. A man died because he rationed his insulin intake. Premium and deduction fees were still too expensive for him. Alex Smith was 26 years old when he died 2 years ago. Before he died he was unable to qualify for my health insurance. His pharmacist told him to pay no less than $ 1,300 he could not afford.

Since 2017, no less than 12 people have died from insulin allotment. This is a report from T1 International. This is a real phenomenon that is happening in the United States, a country that always prides itself on the face of the earth. Broadly speaking, insulin prices in the United States have nearly tripled in the last ten years and at least a quarter of diabetic patients have reduced their insulin doses since the increase. You can see it in various mass media where requests for insulin are often published. You can see how people struggle for their lives, which unfortunately is not fully supported by our government.

Democrat DPR’s Proposal, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019 proves to be very important. This law allows our government to negotiate prices for certain medicines, one of which is insulin. If this great law is enacted, the situation might change drastically for the better but unfortunately Donald Trump and his supporters might try to thwart it.

Insulin is a hormone whose use as a diabetes drug is 95 years old. In 1921 three researchers from the University of Toronto, Frederick Banting, Charles Best and James Collip, managed to isolate it for the first time. They know that insulin treatment is very urgent, and they want people to be able to access it safely and cheaply, but the manufacturing is beyond their means.

They need pharmaceutical companies to maintain their production. However, all three researchers oppose monopolies and patents for biomedical discoveries, so they sell insulin production patents to the University of Toronto for only three dollars, one dollar per head, equivalent to $ 15 today. In this way they release profits, but make their discoveries available so companies can produce them.

The university in turn gave pharmaceutical companies the right to produce drugs without paying royalties. He also offered them the possibility to improve the original formula and patent a new version they had developed from the original process. The goal is that pharmaceutical companies can sell insulin to patients who need it, but cannot raise prices and insulin is always accessible. Initially the plan was successful, and insulin was distributed at an affordable price. However, prices have risen over time and many business practices used by insulin manufacturers are now moving away from altruistic calls and public health. Generic drugs are around 80% of the total drugs prescribed today. However, insulin is a market of more than 30,000 million dollars where there is no single generic drug that really has an affordable price.

To make generics is not enough to copy a molecule whose patent has expired and sell it without further ado. As many as two molecules look identical, to be able to bring this drug to market, you must show that what you produce is really the same as what already exists in terms of dosage, bioavailability, speed, effect, safety … This is called bioequivalence. This applies to products made from the same molecule. For example, generic paracetamol is bioequivalent to Gelocatil. You can buy branded paracetamol, but you know that the generic drug is authorized because it has the same effect.  Says Matt Schmidt of Diabetes 365 “ many people who need the life saving drug known as insulin are struggling to afford it.  This may lead to people rationing insulin which can in turn danger their health.  In some situations, people are even dying because they can’t keep up with the rising cost of their insulin.”

Economic interests and the influence of business lobbying in health policy design are issues that directly affect public health. The best way to guarantee access to health services and vital medicines is to prevent such practices and have transparency mechanisms that are accessible to citizens. And public health. It seems we need to hope Democrats succeed in realizing a health law that is able to help millions of lives in the United States, not only diabetes patients but also patients with other expensive medicines.