Generic medication

[Mrjeezy]

With the rising cost of expensive Cancer, Aids meds etc... I wonder what motive the big pharmaceutical companies had with coming up with this advert or pushing the goverment to air this? Scaremongering maybe? I am constantly saddened to hear that someone that is suffering illness is going to die because they can't be administered lifesaving drugs because of the cost. Do the big pharmaceutical companies really have our welfare at heart for coming up with these ads or are they just worried that the money we spend on generic meds should be going into their pockets instead? Now don't get me wrong i do know that there are a lot of fake drugs out there but i also know for a fact that according to some I've talked to, the generics work at the fraction of a cost. Whether you want to go out and buy generics or stay safe is your own personal choice but if one of my loved ones were dying and the nhs said that they have the drugs to prolong or save their lives but it's to expensive to buy i would be on the internet in seconds. have you any views or know anyone that have used generic meds?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4-Qyu9KbBo

Fake meds advert

[maggieb66]

I never buy named brand medicines for minor illnesses. Medicines have to show their active ingredients and I will always go for the cheaper altermative, so looking for cheaper treatments online is a yes from me. If you're not going to get it from the NHS and you've got no chance of raising the money, what else can you do?

[RATTER15]

The point that is being made here is that you can buy "prescription only drugs" online from around the world, these are often made by con merchants in foreign countries and are totally illegal. they will put anything into these drugs including rat poison just to sell them at a high profit! I'm not sure that they will give you an accurate list of ingredients!

Very dangerous buying from such sources

[Mrjeezy]

Ratter I understand that it's a risk but have a read of this and tell me what would you do if you ore a close family member were being denied the right to life and had nothing to lose what would you do?

http://www.dailymail....banned-cost-much.html

[maggieb66]

That's very scary. You would have thought that the government would stop hyped up prices to these medicine companies, but I suppose they make large amounts of cash on taxes from them.

[RATTER15]

I accept that this is a very difficult decision, but do you really want to kill that person by giving him/her medication that is toxic, this stuff is made by the likes of drug barons and heroin dealers.

Having a family member or close friend die is obviously very distressing but to actually poison that person with dodgy medication is not something I could live with.

[jake-the-peg]

Thing is Mr Jeezy you're getting "mailed" a bit here.

One of these drugs that costs tens of thousands of pounds gives people an average of 6 weeks extra life.

By the time the DM is done it's a "life prolonging" treatment - true but very misleading

Obviouly if it's your familly you want everything , anything and hang the cost but you have to draw the line otherwise it's what? a hundred thousand for an extra month? a quater of a million for an extra week?

[Mrjeezy]

Jake I haven't finished researching this but Im guessing the daily mail is not the only media medium that has highlighted this, also there are many medicines in a similar situation of being priced to high for the nhs to pay for it and life prolonging medicines are not known exclusively for just giving you an extra month Im sure life prolonging can mean anything from an extra minute to an extra day/week/month/year/years surely?
And even if its a hundred thousand for an extra month, if all those that had lost someone had that money and was told would they pay £100,000 for a little more time with their loved ones, they would pay it without thinking, unless the friend or family member was in horrific pain which is an entirely different subject all together.

[Sqad]

NICE have a difficult task, one I wouldn´t care to have, only having a certain amount of money to got around, similar to a housewife having to plan her housekeeping.

I would not let my wife or relative have a drug that prolonged her life for six weeks, even though her quality of life would be acceptable.

Many anti-cancer drugs not cleared by NICE can increase the lifespan and quality of life for more than 6 weeks.......sometimes up to 4years, but the NHS cannot afford them. This is what the Americans are worrying about in Obama´s Medicare System, knowing that other European countries with healthcare different from the NHS, can afford them and they are readily prescribed.

[Sqad]

P.S Would i pay for these drugs on the Internet?............I don´t know.

[jake-the-peg]

Here you go then

The drug I was referring to was avastin it costs on average £21,000 and typically gives patients an extra 6 weeks of life

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11060968

As to Sqad's comments about the NHS and US health care it's worth pointing out that access to these drugs in the us is somewhat dependant on your ability to get medical insurance. Many people who get cancer in the US and recover from it find they are not able to get insurance.

The US spends 17% of their GDP on healthcare double per head what we spend and they still have more childhood mortality than cuba and a lower life expectancy than the UK

http://www.visualecon...the-world_2010-03-01/

Personally I think the Americans should worry about that first rather than adding an extra few weeks to peoples lives when they are terminally ill

[piggynose]

doesn´t walfrun the blood thinning drug include rat poison?

[jake-the-peg]

Warfarin - yes but that's not really what the advert is about.

This is primarilly aimed at the sort of pharmacutical sales that you see in spam e-mails. Because of the NHS in the UK most of the take up from here is in terms of stuff like viagra.

In the US there are huge numbers of people who simply can't get or can't afford insurance so fall prey to this sort of scam.

Some of these drugs originate in India where they have a lax patent system - (a drug can't be patented just it's method of production) - but many are simply fake with no active ingrediants and in a few cases worse stuff (hence the ad)

The Advertising standards comission got a lot of complaints but backed Pfizer who made the ad
http://www.guardian.c...zer-fake-drugs-rat-ad

[RATTER15]

Piggynose, Warfarin is a rat poison as well as a blood thinning medication. It kills the rats by making their blood so thin it just seeps out through every orifice, including eyes, genitals nose etc, most rat poisons work this way.

[Mrjeezy]

Jake please excuse my ignorance but are people getting sick and/or dying from taking generic or fake medicine a common thing?

[McMouse]

There seems to be confusion over the terms generic and fake. Genuine drugs that are the result of research and development by the pharmaceutical industry remain under patent for a number of years during which time the manufacturer hopes to get a big return on their investment. After this period anyone can make the drug and sell it under their own "brand name" although they are using the original components....i.e it is generic.

Fake is not the same thing........though in some cases it might do the same job as the kosher drug, but in many cases it is useless or even dangerous.