Big pharma is the root cause of the inefficiency of medicine.
Meller and Ahmed ’19 (Abbey Meller and Hauwa Ahmed, “How Big Pharma Reaps Profits While Hurting Everyday Americans”, American Progress, Available online: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/big-pharma-reaps-profits-hurting-everyday-americans/#:~:text=But%20the%20issue%20goes%20beyond,skyrocketing%20price%20of%20the%20drug, 8-30-2019, Accessed 7-26-2024)//ILake
Moreover, pharmaceutical companies receive substantial U.S. government assistance in the form of publicly funded basic research and tax breaks, yet they continue to charge exorbitant prices for medications. But the issue goes beyond cost. In America, more than 1 million individuals suffer from Type 1 diabetes, a condition where the body cannot make insulin, which is essential for getting glucose (also known as blood sugar) into cells from the bloodstream. Without insulin, glucose accumulates in the bloodstream, causing dangerously high blood sugar levels. Among all Americans suffering from diabetes, at least 1 in 45 have said that they engaged in insulin rationing—a tactic of using less insulin than is needed in order to make the doses last longer—as a direct result of the skyrocketing price of the drug. A vial of insulin, which is the only life-sustaining option for Type 1 diabetics, retails at around $300. A 2018 study commissioned by the Congressional Diabetes Caucus found that the price of insulin has doubled since 2012; in the 10 years prior, the price of insulin nearly tripled. Despite the dangers of insulin rationing, which can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis, a fatal condition, many Americans have no other choice. That was the case for Antroinette, whose daughter was rationing insulin due to the high cost and died at the age of 22 as a result.