How difficult is it to manufacture and off-patent drug and then to sell it?
Efudex is a skin cream for precancerous skin that had been damaged by sun exposure. The length of treatment is four to eight weeks.
Though it is off-patent, it is expensive.
Just today my dermatologist prescribed a "been around for 20 years" topical cream to burn off the sun-damaged spots on my hands and arms. I've used this cream for a decade: Efudex is the brand name, and it's not some "new miracle drug" which cost billions to develop as per the pharmaceutical industry propaganda.
Some years ago a small tube of the stuff cost an absurdly high $79. Then it jumped to an even more insane $120 for a few ounces of cream. Even though the patent has long expired, it jumped to $218 per tube a few years back. Guess the current price: $272 per small tube.
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Just one manufacturer of cleaning product. From 2012 WSJ:
... the biggest problem there is a shortage of a dehydrated alcohol product that doctors use to kill bacteria in tubes that go from the nutrition machine to the catheter inside the body.
Monday, August 31, 2009
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