The criminality of
the U.S. health care system has been laid bare this past week amidst
outrage over the release of a prescription drug.
Makena, a treatment
to reduce the risk of premature birth, received FDA approval last
month and went on sale March 14. K-V Pharmaceutical Company, granted
exclusive rights by the FDA to manufacture and market the drug,
stated the approval “represents a significant step forward for the
thousands of women whose families have been impacted by preterm
birth.”
The outrage? K-V has
set the list price for Makena at $1,500 a dose, approximately $30,000
for a full-course of treatment. However, Makena, previously known as
17P, has actually been in use for over 50 years and was available
from compounding pharmacies for as little as $10 a dose. Like
most prescription drugs marketed by leading pharmaceutical companies,
it was developed in a publicly sponsored laboratory, the National
Institutes of Health in this case, paid for by taxpayers.
The outrageous
markup multiplies the price by 150 and places the
treatment out of reach of many poor and working-class women, those
most affected by preterm birth. Women
who have begun treatment cannot afford to complete it, and many who
need it cannot afford to begin.
In attempts to quell
the outrage expressed by the health care community, K-V recently
announced a plan to help patients pay for Makena, but the company
cannot pull the veil back over its criminality or the FDA’s
complicity.
The patenting system
puts medicines beyond the reach of poor and sick people. Armed with
the FDA-granted exclusivity rights, K-V ordered pharmacies to
cease-and-desist production and sale of 17P, then watched its stock
prices soar over the last month. By granting K-V this monopoly, the
FDA has shown its true loyalty to big business and complicity in
denying crucial health care to tens of thousands of women.
“You can’t
describe this as anything other than greed,” stated Ronald Thomas,
director of the division of maternal-fetal medicine for West Penn
Allegheny Health System. However, the true problem is not one
“greedy” pharmaceutical company.
Private
pharmaceutical corporations exist and operate to generate profits by
commodifying the basic need of health care. K-V is just one example
of the criminal corporate health care system. Pharmaceutical
companies on the Forbes 500 list raked in over $63 billion in profits
in 2010, while tens of thousands died due to lack of adequate health
care.
The solution for the
health care crisis is to remove this profit motive from the system. A
socialist system, such as that in Cuba, a leader in production of
cheap generic medications and pharmaceutical innovation, operates to
meet people’s needs rather than profits. The profit interests of
big business have no place in health care. Health care is a basic
human right and must be freely and universally available.
