Scrubbing up: Your comments

In this week's Scrubbing Up David Fisher, commercial director for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, says companies are unfairly attacked for charging high prices for drugs.

Fisher says that drugs companies have excessive overheads which must be recouped. The companies need money to fund further research so that more and better drugs can be developed.

What do you think? Here are some of the comments you have been sending in to this week's Scrubbing up.

Big drugs companies are always after the patentable blockbuster drugs which they can sell for huge profit per unit in the Western world, instead of substances, patented or not, that would yield a small profit per unit in the developing world. There is a very strong argument to be made that malaria is still a problem purely because there is little money to be made from drugs for poor people. There should be no sympathy for drugs companies until they address the difference in their marketing versus research and development budgets, and start dealing with real, life-threatening illnesses in the developing world, instead of messing about inventing new anti-obesity drugs, or whatever, that can be sold to narcissistic Westerners.
Jeremy, South Yorkshire

David Fisher fails to mention that one of the reasons prices of medicines are cheaper in the UK compared to other parts of the world is because pharmaceutical firms have a huge support system in the UK which is designed to encourage them to set up laboratories and offices in the UK, and to work with the NHS. Firms also have a committed customer: The NHS, which buys medicines on behalf of an entire nation. Elsewhere, private healthcare systems etc mean there is a lot more choice and competition so patients may not even necessarily buy medicines when they need to and firms have to spend a lot more on advertising and sweetening doctors and pharmacies to sell their branded products.
Rish, London

Let's not forget that pharmaceutical companies are businesses and they need to make a profit otherwise the game is up and they fold. What a lot of people don't realise is that once a new drug has been developed in the laboratory it takes many years for it to be considered safe enough to be used as a treatment (assuming it even gets that far!). During this pre-drug approval stage the pharmaceutical company makes very little profit from the drug despite significant monies being sourced into further development and clinical trials. I must add that l do not work for a pharmaceutical company. I am however, frustrated by the 'pro-underdog', 'anti-commerce' attitude that the UK is unfortunately acquiring.
Jane

Yes, in general, the pharmaceutical industry does come in for unfair criticism. In part, I believe this is because of a general ignorance about the way in which new drugs are developed. It can take at least ten years to develop and market one new drug; fewer than .01% of compounds make it to market; conducting clinical trials is a very expensive business, punctuated by the need to negotiate stringent regulatory hurdles along the way. And, of course, let's not forget it's a business that also needs to satisfy the shareholders!
Alex, Cambridge

Pharmaceutical companies are in business to make money, they are not little companies with people dedicating their lives for the betterment of mankind, they are multinationals run by bean counters for their shareholders. When was the last time you saw a financially poor surgeon or even GP?
David, Bolton

Until six months ago I would have said no to your question but I now work in pharmaceutical manufacturing and I am staggered at the cost of development and overheads that go into making sure our products are safe and well made. People are quick to criticise when things go wrong because a drug has not been trialled correctly. All this costs money that has to be recouped, after all they are businesses and they need to make money to survive, otherwise there will be no more drugs to make us better.
Engelburta, Canterbury

My one big point of criticism about the biotech industry in general and the pharmaceutical industry specifically is that there are virtually no pro-bono organisations. Where are your "Entrepreneurs Without Borders" or your "International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers for the Prevention of Nuclear War"? Please adapt some of your patents, siphon off some profits and direct some spare time to the development of medicines that don't have large market shares, that won't be cash cows in the product pipeline, or can't ever make you filthy rich. People are still dying and the only ones that can cure them are you.
Andrew, Bath

We do very well from the industry. By the time the NHS can afford the medicine, the US Health Companies will have paid the majority of the profit these companies require to break even. In addition, the patent lasts only 20 years, at which point generic (copies) of the drug can be manufactured which are very cheap: Aspirin cheap. Expecting our government funded system (NHS) to have access to cutting edge medicine as you would in the US is unrealistic.
Gary, Waterlooville

A quick glance over some of the publicly available figures relating to the major British pharmaceutical companies shows that they had profit margins comparable in excess of those of major British oil companies in 2008. How they can claim not to be profiteering and - in this article, at least - seem to claim that they operate on tight margins where the future of the company hangs in the balance whilst posting profit margins of almost 20% is beyond me. I understand that research and development is a very expensive process, but I also understand that if a pharmaceutical company is selling a drug which works, people will pay for it almost regardless of price. People tend to prefer being alive and less well off to dead and rich.
Paul, Norfolk

There needs to be more consideration to the cost of overall health care. Drugs for high blood pressure may be expensive when they are given to a lot of people. They are still a lot cheaper than building new hospitals for people having heart attacks.
Stephen, Kent

I don't think the pharmaceutical companies are profiteering which is part of the problem. It seems to me that if you spend millions researching a product then you need to sell as many as possible. If you price the product too high then you won't sell enough to cover your costs. It is better to gain £100 from 10,000 sales than £10,000 from 10. If the NHS won't buy the drugs because they cost too much then the companies can't hope to profit.
Fish, Dorset

Unconvincing. For every drug there is an alternative solution - natural, or lifestyle change or cause prevention. Health systems and politicians are not interested in these.
Thomas, Cambridge

I am currently employed as a production team leader for a south Wales pharmaceutical company. I feel that drug manufacturers do an excellent job, managing to remain efficient and eventually (occasionally) managing to launch a new product to the market. However, I am also aware of all of the very hard work which has gone to waste when a drug fails at the clinical trial stage - which many, many drugs do fail at this stage. Based on this I feel that drug manufacturers need to charge as much as they do, as this is probably the only realistic way a company can be able to fund future research in to even newer drugs.
Colin, Hengoed

Absolute rubbish! In the UK the situation is bad enough but we have the criminal situation where drugs costing pennies are being sold for thousands of pounds in countries where there is no NHS. We see people dying of preventable diseases while pharmaceutical CEOs and shareholders lord it up with champagne lunches. The methods of drugs testing in the third world (where they use illiterate poor people who have no idea of the risks they're taking) just shows what criminals big pharmaceutical companies are.
Vish, London

People calling for cheaper medicines ignore the huge amounts spent by pharmaceutical companies on speculative research which goes nowhere before they make the breakthroughs which lead to new 'wonder drugs'. This research is extremely expensive, often using equipment itself on the cutting edge of physical science. If pharmaceutical companies didn't fund this work through sales of existing medicines and corporate investment, then the NHS would have to do its own research but without the ability to claw back much of the cost via sales abroad. Nothing of value comes for free and the current model of drug procurement sees the NHS pretty much having its cake and eating it. I guess they want whipped cream and sprinkles as well!
Jamie, Wendover

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