On June 5, 1981, the Centers of Control Disease and Prevention (CDC) published the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), about a rare lung infection called Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) in five gay men, living in Los Angeles (HSRA). This was the first case of what would be later known as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS), now a widely spread disease. The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) protested outside the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on October 11, 1988, to change the drug approval process. Eight days later, the FDA announced new regulations to speed up the drug approval process; however, it has been 30 years since the FDA announced the new process and there is still no cure or vaccine (HSRA). Moreover,
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This potentially leads to the doctor prescribing more drugs because the previous ones were “ineffective” (Angell, XXI). People avoid purchasing these drugs, all because of the price settings. So would this AIDS cure really be saving people or making the problem worse? Social Darwinism is a familiar practice for these people. A branch or survival of the fittest, “that would make Darwin throw-up” (Crash Course US History #23). The drug to cure Hepatitis C alone costs 84,000 U.S dollars (USD), more than the highest middle-class income; a disease that is fairly common that there is 130-150 million documented diagnosed (Pietrangelo, 2). What could this mean for an even more common disease like AIDS cure price? Pharmaceutical companies and the FDA look at these patients and see a huge profit gain, which could mean price jacking. In 1984, the Hatch-Waxman Act was passed by governments to protect the pharmaceutical industry (Angell, 9). This act was passed to was passed to insulate monopolies on brand-name drugs and prevents generic drugs from being released for a period of time …show more content…
The most extensive limitation is the fact that the government has isolated this industry so well with acts of the 21st Century Cures and the Hatch-Waxman Act. In order for the Government to implement price ceilings and floors, the union would have to overwrite any and every legal precedent surrounding drugs. On top of that, the Health Portability Insurance and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was a legislation passed in 1996 that provides data security for safeguarding medical information, according to SearchHealthIT. This prevents anything such as demographics being released about the disease to the population. It also prevents anything like quarantining the population that foster the disease. Furthermore, when individuals start getting into the deals with insurance and Medicaid/medicare the situation gets complicated. The strongest argument form the opposing side is that families/individuals can apply and get on Medicaid, however this is only an option for those with low incomes that can typically get on it and is not an option for an average or high middle class citizen as stated by Health Resource and Service Administration (HSRA). But when introducing medicare it potentially enacts even more price corruption into the
This potentially leads to the doctor prescribing more drugs because the previous ones were “ineffective” (Angell, XXI). People avoid purchasing these drugs, all because of the price settings. So would this AIDS cure really be saving people or making the problem worse? Social Darwinism is a familiar practice for these people. A branch or survival of the fittest, “that would make Darwin throw-up” (Crash Course US History #23). The drug to cure Hepatitis C alone costs 84,000 U.S dollars (USD), more than the highest middle-class income; a disease that is fairly common that there is 130-150 million documented diagnosed (Pietrangelo, 2). What could this mean for an even more common disease like AIDS cure price? Pharmaceutical companies and the FDA look at these patients and see a huge profit gain, which could mean price jacking. In 1984, the Hatch-Waxman Act was passed by governments to protect the pharmaceutical industry (Angell, 9). This act was passed to was passed to insulate monopolies on brand-name drugs and prevents generic drugs from being released for a period of time …show more content…
The most extensive limitation is the fact that the government has isolated this industry so well with acts of the 21st Century Cures and the Hatch-Waxman Act. In order for the Government to implement price ceilings and floors, the union would have to overwrite any and every legal precedent surrounding drugs. On top of that, the Health Portability Insurance and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was a legislation passed in 1996 that provides data security for safeguarding medical information, according to SearchHealthIT. This prevents anything such as demographics being released about the disease to the population. It also prevents anything like quarantining the population that foster the disease. Furthermore, when individuals start getting into the deals with insurance and Medicaid/medicare the situation gets complicated. The strongest argument form the opposing side is that families/individuals can apply and get on Medicaid, however this is only an option for those with low incomes that can typically get on it and is not an option for an average or high middle class citizen as stated by Health Resource and Service Administration (HSRA). But when introducing medicare it potentially enacts even more price corruption into the