Attempts at Regulation.

In New York the state legislature made a real attempt at putting some regulations on the pharmaceutical industry. The law that was signed by Governor Cuomo aimed to “tax” the pharmaceutical industries operating within New York. The law was designed to have companies pay a “tax” based on the amount of sales the companies were reporting in the state. So the companies selling the most would pay the highest share of the “tax”. The purpose of reallocating this money was to fund rehabilitation and education programs for those struggling with addiction to the legal drugs provided by the companies as well as street drugs tey may have become addicted to as a result of becoming dependent on legal drugs. Unfortunately the law was rejected in a New York City federal court. Now this may have been a result of the law doing it’s job but looking through the scope of some of my previous research it may have been a result of the pharmaceuticals deep reach into the federal government.

Although our president has made a laundry list of comment concerning various domestic and international issues his comments on drug money have tilted on the side of accurate and much needed. As reported by the Guardian President Trump has said that drug companies have given massive amounts of money to political people. This statement rings true in 9 out of 10 of our House of Representatives members and all but 3 of our Senators. This money has contributed to our citizens being forced to buy drugs from domestic run companies rather than importing generic versions of the same drugs overseas. We are forced to pay these ridiculously inflated prices for drugs that we can purchase from other companies for a fraction of the price. This drug money infiltrating our goernment has also prevented the succesful negotiation of lower prices for essential drugs. In many countries including a host of European countries governments are able to negotiate with drug companies in order to provide consistent pricing that is affordable for both the government and in turn the citizens who are ultimately purchasing these drugs for use.

Links below to these two articles.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-opioids/judge-blocks-new-york-from-enforcing-opioid-surcharge-on-companies-idUSKCN1OI2FZ

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/19/big-pharma-money-lobbying-us-opioid-crisis