2. How is the pharmaceutical industry regulated? Do you believe that this proces

Question

2. How is the pharmaceutical industry regulated? Do you believe that this process safeguards the public’s health? 3. Do some cost research of your own. Pick a drug, and compare the cost of at least two suppliers. What accounts for the differences? 4. Should patents be available on drugs that can save peoples’ lives? 5. Who should decide which medical technologies and which pharmaceuticals are developed? 6. Should stem cell research for diseases like Parkinson’s be available scientists all over the world like the Human Genome Project—why/why not?

please answer all questions thanks again

Explanation / Answer

2.How is the pharmaceutical industry regulated? Do you believe that this process safeguards the public’s health?

The pharmaceutical industry is regulated by the following federal bodies, US Health & Human Services, FDA or the Food and Drug Administration , Joint Commission Standards and MHRA or the Medicines and Healthcare ProductsRegulatory Agency. Yes to a large extend these bodies are generally successful in the process of safeguarding the public's health, since each body has a unique purpose and together they regulate the pharmaceutical industry products throughout its product lifecycle.

3. Do some cost research of your own. Pick a drug, and compare the cost of at least two suppliers. What accounts for the differences?

Cetirizine is a generic anti allergy drug and is manufactured by multiple pharmaceutical companies.

CETIRIZINE 10 MG TAB 100 is sold for $7.15 by Rising Pharmaceuticals Inc

CETIRIZINE 10 MG TAB 100 is sold for $13.30 by PACK Pharmaceuticals, LLC

The following factors account for the price difference

- Economy of scale (production volume)

- Experience Curve Strategy ( Relations with their suppliers)

- Distribution Partnership (with big box retailers and pharmaceutical stores like CVS pharmacy)

- Cost paid for brand name patented formulation by the original manufacturer

- Wether or not the company is recommended by any leading health care professional or health care institution

4. Should patents be available on drugs that can save peoples’ lives?

From an economic standpoint they should be allowed to do so in order to incentivise the pharmaceutical industry to develop cures faster and in a more effective manner. The reason being the cost of drug development is absurdly high, which is why most companies acquire patents and then produce drugs which are close substitutes. So there should be a risk to reward ratio that goes beyond covering costs.

However the duration of such a patent should be limited to 5 - 10 years along with a strict control on pricing , supply and the cost set for patent acquisition by other pharmaceutical firms. Pricing control's are essential since such firms tend to experience perfectly inelastic demand.

Inelastic Demand

If price changes without any changes in the net value that the product or a service is adding to a customer, it would inevitably effect the demand for the product or service. This is best highlighted by the demand curve in behavioural economics through a series of graphs known as elasticity of demand. Monopolistic firms are the only ones who enjoy perfectly inelastic demand for their products or service, where a change in price is't followed by the change in demand. For all other companies however, they would have to add a degree of value to prevent demand levels from falling.

Thus having a cap on pricing and a target for supply would help strike the balance between incentivising the company and making the drug available at a reasonable price for patients.

5. Who should decide which medical technologies and which pharmaceuticals are developed?

I don't think that there should be any governmental body that decides which medical technologies and which pharmaceuticals are developed however there should be governmental bodies that extensively regulate the pharmaceutical industry, The government should be in the business of administration and regulatory oversight not deciding which medical technologies and which pharmaceuticals are developed since this will hamper innovation, free markets and availability of medical technologies and which pharmaceuticals for patients.

6. Should stem cell research for diseases like Parkinson’s be available scientists all over the world like the Human Genome Project—why/why not?

It should provided it comes with extensive regulatory oversight. The reason being that this particular field of medical research crosses over a landmine of ethical issues that still fall under a grey area, however when more companies work on medical research, the end product or service becomes cheaper for the consumer due to perfect competition and economies of scale.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse 2
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.