Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Health care
http://www.oregonrx.org
It is widely known that drug companies spend more money on marketing than on research and development. At the same time we wonder why the cost of prescription drugs is rising so fast. Those marketing dollars come from our wallets, and what do they buy us? Television ads with dancing people smiling. Yet when it comes to deciding which drug actually works best doctors just don't know, because marketing dollars are not objective.
Let me give you an example. For chronic pain, joint stiffness, arthritis, etc doctors often prescribe Celebrex. 30 days of Celebrex will cost $104. Part of that goes to the nice television ad I saw for a 65ish woman doing tie-chi in a park. Naproxin which is also prescribed for the same symptoms is $31 for 30 days. In other words Celebrex costs about 300% more. So you would expect Celebrex to be more effective, right. Wrong. Celebrex and Naproxin work about the same, with the same level of side effects. If you buy Celebrex you got scammed.
Or Prilosec, which is over the counter, working as well as Nexium (marketed as the new purple pill). Similar price disparity. This list goes on and on.
Oregon RX is an attempt by the state of Oregon to compare the different drugs and shed some light on the issue of how well they work. Go visit the site, the reports are great.
I bring this up because the house and Senate are finalizing a bill to cover prescription drug benefits with my tax dollars. I'm very annoyed that it has no provision like the Oregon RX plan to help us tax pays not get ripped off buy marketing.
It is widely known that drug companies spend more money on marketing than on research and development. At the same time we wonder why the cost of prescription drugs is rising so fast. Those marketing dollars come from our wallets, and what do they buy us? Television ads with dancing people smiling. Yet when it comes to deciding which drug actually works best doctors just don't know, because marketing dollars are not objective.
Let me give you an example. For chronic pain, joint stiffness, arthritis, etc doctors often prescribe Celebrex. 30 days of Celebrex will cost $104. Part of that goes to the nice television ad I saw for a 65ish woman doing tie-chi in a park. Naproxin which is also prescribed for the same symptoms is $31 for 30 days. In other words Celebrex costs about 300% more. So you would expect Celebrex to be more effective, right. Wrong. Celebrex and Naproxin work about the same, with the same level of side effects. If you buy Celebrex you got scammed.
Or Prilosec, which is over the counter, working as well as Nexium (marketed as the new purple pill). Similar price disparity. This list goes on and on.
Oregon RX is an attempt by the state of Oregon to compare the different drugs and shed some light on the issue of how well they work. Go visit the site, the reports are great.
I bring this up because the house and Senate are finalizing a bill to cover prescription drug benefits with my tax dollars. I'm very annoyed that it has no provision like the Oregon RX plan to help us tax pays not get ripped off buy marketing.
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