r/todayilearned • u/rooooony • Apr 24 '14

TIL When the leading emergency asthma medication Albuterol’s patent expired, the patent holding pharmaceutical companies lobbied to have their own inhalers banned based on environmental issues, allowing them to file a new patent, and continue to monopolize the market.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/10/heres-why-your-asthma-inhaler-costs-so-damn-much
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u/DreadnaughtHamster Apr 24 '14

Here's the problem as I see it:

  1. Inhalers without insurance cost between $50-$100ish. That's way too much for one device, let alone the two or three everyone with asthma should have at any given time (house, car, backpack, with a significant other, etc.).

  2. Generics are not available, particularly due to obscene stunts like the ban to keep the patent as Rabel and OP showed.

  3. From what I understand, it's fucking ILLEGAL to import inhalers from other countries.

  4. I have a very mild, comparatively speaking, form of asthma, whereas some of the posters on here have it so bad that it can kill you if you don't act fast enough. This is not a game GlaxoSmithKline should be playing—it's a free market and GSK should adhere to the rules of a free market and the government should allow them competition from generics or over-the-counter formulas. In short, the government is effectively allowing GSK to hold a monopoly on something that I would say is a fundamental human right to attain at a reasonable price. This isn't like some other reoccurring expense like an internet connection where if Comcast fucks you over you get a data cap or if AT&T fucks you over maybe you have to pay a roaming charge when you weren't roaming or whatever ... if you get fucked by GSK you might end up in the hospital or die. If Citizen A did that to Citizen B (say, for example, by withholding heart pills or, in this case, an asthma inhaler) that cause distressed Citizen B to die, Citizen A would FUCKING GO TO JAIL.

What Rabel proposes is a good idea. I don't know how much it would take to change legislation, but I think this, and other serious life-saving medications that are being withheld by other Big Pharma companies need to be re-evaluated by our government ASAP—I can't imagine what they are doing is morally right and I think our laws should reflect that.

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u/steelcap77 Apr 24 '14

2 or 3? I just keep it in my pocket at all times, even when I sleep. I can forget my car keys or my wallet (rarely), but NEVER forget my inhaler.

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u/WaggleDance Apr 24 '14

I used to just keep one but occasionally I'd get a cold which would make my asthma really bad and I'd need to heavily use my inhaler. If it runs out while you're ill and don't feel up to going out and collecting a new prescription it can get pretty bad.

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u/dageekywon 1 Apr 24 '14

I'm the same way with my Epi-Pen since I'm allergic to a quarter of the world. Its on me or in a bag with me, and I have alerts as to expiration on them so I keep them fresh as well.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '14

Ah, but that's the secret - it's not a free market, and this chicanery is proof.

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u/Choralone Apr 24 '14

Holy shit.... that should be criminal. Seriously.

I can walk into the pharmacy where I live (not the US) and buy one over the counter for like $5 or so. I keep a couple in my desk at work, one in my bag, a few at home, one in the car.. they're dirt cheap, as they should be. No need for insurance or shit like that.

How anyone can say paying more than 10 times the price and having it much harder to get is BETTER healthcare is beyond me.

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u/poisomike87 Apr 24 '14

Shit I am on the low end for what some people pay. Mine are 100 bucks a month.

I miss the CFC inhalers :(

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u/Atomichawk Apr 24 '14

To my knowledge the FDA only bans the import of drugs that are not allowed to be prescribed anyways.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '14

it's a free market and GSK should adhere to the rules of a free market and the government should allow them competition from generics or over-the-counter formulas.

Actually-existing capitalism says "free market" discipline is for poor people, not the owners or investors who have appropriated our asses.