Why America’s biggest charities are owned by pharmaceutical companies

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Drug companies increase spending on copay charities before pushing through higher drug prices

in need of a drug in America goes to fulfil their prescription, the price they have to pay can vary wildly. For generic off-patent drugs, prices are usually low for the uninsured and free for those with insurance. But for newer, patent-protected therapies prices can be as high as several thousand dollars per month. Those without insurance may end up facing these lofty list prices.

Not everyone qualifies for their help. Unsurprisingly, pharma-affiliated charities fund co-payments only on prescriptions for drugs that they manufacture. There is often an income threshold, too, which excludes the richest Americans—though it is usually set quite high, at around five times the household poverty line.

Pharmaceutical companies will often claim that helping patients with their co-payments is a way of making costly drugs more accessible. But it has the fortunate consequence of making their customers price-insensitive, because insurance companies will often use high co-payments to nudge their customers into opting for generics over costlier branded drugs: no co-pay, no incentive to save money.

There is also evidence that pharmaceutical companies bump up the scope of their co-payment programmes shortly after they increase drug prices. When Martin Shkreli, the former boss of Turing Pharmaceuticals , increased the price of Daraprim 50-fold in 2015, he also donated to a fund to cover co-pays for patients with toxoplasmosis, a disease treated using Daraprim. The ability of insurance companies to push these price increases back onto drugmakers, by raising co-payments, is limited.

 

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This is now going to make it very hard for me to donate...

Name Them Dismantle Them make their NAMES synonymous w/DrugWar evil mass incarceration racist cops this is America's 'pharmaceutical industry' infantry racist, misogynist, fascist DrugWar weilding bullies One Fragile Little Ball In Space & nowhere to run StandYourGround

It's a bitter pill?

they control the population by working in agriculture, chemistry and medicine.and they have already diagnosed cancer.more and more sales medicines for cancer

Because the world is trash

I could say that possibly this is because Big Pharma seeks to get as many people in need of charity hooked on prescription drugs as possible and this is a good vehicle to accomplish that potential goal? Attn: EmmanuelLabor , CityOfMcKinney

Because the target group of charities are vulnerable‘ of pharmaceuticals!

To get big Tax breaks? So Administrators of Charities become rich?

If we don't know what healthy feels/looks like If we need to be told what & when to eat If we need to be advised how much exercise to do If we do things that go against our well-being If we can't take care of ourselves Do we have a mentalhealth crisis or are we the commodity?

Because we live in Clown World.

'Charities should provide public services'

How managers & issues can be a drag in sports like west Indies, it should be hyegine & growth engine

🎓

Why don't we have the cure for many diseases yet? Society prepares doctors, biologists, scientists to help it, they are not supposed to work for selfish benefits.

Tax right off

Here we go again with the blame the patient for choosing to pay more. Nope. This spin is archaic and motivated by self-centeredness.

Who care about the price sensitive, if the real cost is down, why not. The problem is this practice can not reduce the real cost

Is this really a problem? It sounds like a clever way to avoid capital gains t*x IMO

Donations based on MSRP, not cost to produce? Gave away 1 billion in meds, cost $13 to make.

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