William Brown wrote in news:10mttilhto7jt88
@corp.supernews.com:



Dave Hinz wrote:
On 13 Oct 2004 21:29:23 -0700, Dan Cullimore
wrote:


"...Those cheap foreign drugs" are actually manufactured by U.S.
companies (often IN the U.S.), then sold to Canadian firms at far
less
than the artificially high U.S. market price.


Why are they selling to Canadian firms for less money? That's the
real thing to fix, not how to re-import it.


The research involved in discovering new drugs and getting them
improved, and in setting up the production facilities, is very
expensive; actual production costs are relatively low. The drug
companies set their prices here high enough to recover all their costs
within the relatively short peroid of time that the drug is protected
against generics.

Canada simply said to our drug companies that they won't buy the drugs
unless they get a much lower price; as long as the drug company can
recover their relatively low production costs and a profit from these
additional sales, it makes perfect sense for them to sell for less to
the Canadian government.

The result is that we consumers are covering the research and
development costs, while Canada is getting a free ride.

It seems to me the best solution would be to tax drug exports so the
Canadians,

This might work if all drug manufacturers were American companies. A
significant number of them are European companies who following that
logic should pass R/D costs on to the citizens of their own countries
and sell them here for production + profit. They dont do that because
they are able to sell them here for more. It's really just a case of
sell for what the market will bear.



Incidentally, I have read that Canada's health care system that the
Democrats want to copy routinely runs out of money and denies people
treatment (they cross the border for treatment here, just as some of
us

You probably should have read the entire article. The canadian system
and the system being proposed here are not at all similar. The Canadian
system is government sponsored and is essentially Socialized healthcare.
The system being proposed here is simply a means to allow people who are
currently unable to, to purchase PRIVATE commercial healthcare insurance
that is the same as or similar to that offered by most employers. The
costs of that coverage may or may not be subsidized by the govenrment,
but the responsibilty for funding payments to healtcare providers would
fall squarely on private insurers.