We must unite to fight drug prices
The fight for affordable drug prices is not unique to South Africa. Other countries are also fighting for the sky-rocketing drug prices to be brought down.
The difference lies in the methods used by various countries to address the problem. For instance, in the US, an organisation called The AARP Grassroots Advocacy Team is actively involved in the fight for reasonable drug prices.
So far, the community has sent over one million messages to Congress demanding action on sky-rocketing drug prices.
That is a lot of messages, and each one is personal. Community members borrow money, put off retirement and forgo medication they desperately need because of outrageous prices.
One letter from Pam Holt read: “I had only three years left on my mortgage, and I had to take out a new mortgage and start over at 69. That is what the drug industry has done for me”.
Another, from Bob Kelter, read: “Why are we paying so much? I don’t think at this point there is an answer for people like me”.
A post to the AARP website reads: “It’s amazing. So for this year, AARP has flooded Congress with more than one million letters! We are so proud of our community for sending 1 005 574 letters demanding lower prescription drugs”.
The main goal of the AARP organisation is to help senior citizens to have a healthy lifestyle at old age, at an affordable price.
Pharmaceutical companies have powerful lobby groups and hold the sick hostage with very expensive drugs and governments are unwilling to control their activities. So, it seems this is a global problem.
But, to refer to a letter that was published in The Star on October 14, where the author seems to wonder why her daughter of 47 years of age was charged R750, while her 84-yearold husband was charged R600 while they were both treated at the same facility, we can only assume the reason could be that they might have been treated for two very different conditions.
Second, the elderly are always afforded some special regard considering that throughout their active lives, they have long paid their dues to their governments and communities as taxpayers. So, they deserve to be shown some compassion in their twilight years.
As consumers, we will never know what drives the sky-rocketing drug prices. It could be a number of reasons; the research that precedes the manufacturing of the drugs, the ingredients involved in the production of such drugs, the labour involved, the infrastructure and human capital, etc.
Whatever the case may be, we expect governments to intervene on our behalf as consumers to make prescription drugs affordable.