I saw this ad in the AARP magazine:

FREE!

Not what you'd expect to hear form a drug company. The Merck Patient Assistance Program has rprovided Merck medicines free to those who can't afford them for nearly 50 years. To find ourif you're eligible, call 1-877-727-5400 or visit www.merck.com.

Where patients come first - MERCK!

Hope this helps someone in need...

Most of the drug companies do this if you meet the financial guidelines. Many lives have been saved this way.

Glad to hear it. I'd never heard of this before. Typically, you hear only the bad points concerning drug companies. Like how much money they make. It's nice to know they give back.

Pharmaceutical companies make their profit on drugs while the patent is still in effect. After the patent has expired and the drug can legally be duplicated as a generic, it is pretty much surplus. The only drugs they give away are the ones on which the patent has expired.

When generics become available, news stories are released to the media about the terrible effects of the original drug. Then the company comes out with something to treat the same condition which supposedly has no side effects. When the patent runs out on the new drug, the whole process starts over again.

That information is helpful though. Drug companies do some wonderful things, but giving things away is not one of them. Their profits are huge. They can make billions from a single drug. Such immense profits gives them too many incentives to withold adverse information and endanger the public health.

smile

[ February 16, 2006, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: smilinize ]

I've heard many stories of doctors giving their patients samples if they don't have the money for their medications. So indirectly, they've been doing it forever. I bet the cost of manufacturing the drugs is minumiscule (sp?).

One reason there have not been many "official" studies on bio-identical hormones is that there is not a patent (since they're natural) on them, so the drug companies can't make money.

Daisygirl

More than eighty percent of the cost of a drug is marketing. Media advertising is very expensive and not as effective as physician education and reward systems, but it gives the companies a degree of control over what the media publicizes about their drugs.

Added to that is the cost of lobbying. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country. They spend slightly less than the American Meidical Assn.

Probably less than 10% of the cost of a drug is left to cover research, development and production. Then there's those pesky lawsuits, but those costs are either insured or figured into the price.

I need to buy more pharmaceutical stock.

smile