Maryland congressman to testify before Senate on drug shortages, price-gouging

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Maryland congressman to testify before Senate on drug shortages, price-gouging
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, July 25, 12:18 AM

WASHINGTON — Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings says he plans to testify on Capitol Hill about drug shortages and so-called gray-market drug companies.

Cummings says he will testify Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee on his investigation. The Maryland congressman says he launched the probe nearly a year ago after receiving a letter from University of Maryland women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese, who was having trouble getting medication to treat her son’s leukemia.

The lawmaker is proposing reforms to deter price-gouging and make the drug supply chain safer. Shortages have forced doctors to postpone chemotherapy and surgeries or provide less effective treatment and have even been blamed for some deaths. Cummings has been looking into where companies get drugs that are in short supply, what they pay, and how much they charge hospitals.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/maryland-congressman-to-testify-before-senate-on-drug-shortages-price-gouging/2012/07/25/gJQAiYi67W_story.html

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[AllyCat]

1. Shortages. What a mess! Hospitals without needed medications

because these assclowns are rigging the game (again).

[CBHagman]

2. Thanks for the heads-up.

I hadn't heard about Congressman Cummings' upcoming testimony.

[Javaman]

3. It's absolutely crazy...

my friend needs a med. 30 pills for 150 bucks! what the fuck?

the solution? my friend can't afford it.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[JoeyT]

5. Offer to break their patents on the drugs.

"If you can't make enough, I bet someone else can." would ramp up production pretty fucking quickly.

"If you can't make it cheaply enough to sell it at a reasonable price, I bet someone else will." would cut costs the same way.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. This was a problem in the USSR...