California Recklessly Puts The Future Of Breakthroughs Like Paxil CR At Risk

It would seem the Golden State has witnessed a remarkable political transformation. In less than a year, the Governor, known to millions the world over as a time traveling killer robot, has changed his top priorities from Union Busting and starving state government of revenue to limiting greenhouse gases and using the power of state government to help California citizens afford their prescription drugs. According to the LA Times:

The price-reduction effort, a showpiece for Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign, is an approach he rejected last year and one opposed by the drug industry

An approach he rejected last year, when he wasn't running for re-election. Might those two things be related? I'll let you decide. I suppose though I would rather have someone in office who talks sense for 6 months out of his term than the fatal stubborn arrogance of president monkey-boy. And at least the state government of California hasn't declared war on cursive handwriting.

According to the Times, the plan:

would give the drug industry three years to voluntarily negotiate discounts with the state on behalf of people who earn up to triple the federal poverty level, or about $60,000 a year for a family of four. An additional 400,000 people who earn somewhat more but face debilitating medical bills also would be eligible.The discounts would take as much as 40% off brand-name drugs and up to 60% off generic medicines.In a major concession, Schwarzenegger agreed that companies that offer insufficient markdowns could be impeded from selling drugs through Medi-Cal, a $2-billion market that serves millions of Californians.

Big Pharma is ecstatic. The article goes on to quote the CEO of Pfizer, who says that "We've been ripping off consumers for far too long, and are thankful that Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature have put an end to our unethical price gouging." Then he held a press conference where he set fire to a giant symbolic check made out for 3.9 million dollars, an amount equal to his bonus for 2005.

OK, I made that last paragraph up. Except for the amount of Pfizer's CEO's bonus. I'll bet I don't have to tell you what Big Pharma's real reaction was. It's the same tired argument we've been hearing year after year. Namely, as the Corporate whore of journalism, The Wall Street Journal, puts it on it's editorial page:

Over the long term, Gov. Schwarzenegger's price controls would have an even more perverse effect. They would lead to fewer new medicines, particularly if other states follow California's example.

Today, it costs between $800 million and $1 billion to bring a new drug to market.

Except that there are fewer medicines being developed now. From Forbes, not exactly a center for left-wing muckraking:

A total of 87 major drugs with $31 billion in combined annual sales have lost patent protection since 2002, but new drugs aren't arriving fast enough to replace them. Only 20 were cleared by the Food & Drug Administration last year, down from 53 a decade ago.

Makes you wonder what Drug Companies are doing with the gusher of dollars our current unregulated system is sending into their coffers. Other than writing 4 million dollar checks to their CEO's, they're stopping research on antibiotics while spending $84 billion a year doing things like convincing us we have diseases they invented that match drugs they already have on the market. OK, to be fair, they probably aren't actually writing out 4 million dollar checks. The CEO of Pfizer more than likely has direct deposit.

The $84 billion falls under the category of "marketing and administration." It's over twice what Big Pharma spends on research, and according to their own propaganda, it's enough to bring 84 new drugs to market each and every year. Except the new drugs aren't happening.


So if we're going to get less in they way of new drugs that actually cure disease, we might as well pay less. I'd never thought I'd say this, but yay for California state government. Just watch your back after election day.