Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/08/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Friday, August 30, 2002, at 07:47 PM, Tim Atherton wrote: > I read a while back that apparently so many seniors are doing it, that > the > good ole' US Government is trying to find a way to put a stop to it, in > order to protect the extortionate monopoly of the drug companies :-) i think technically it's illegal to import pharmaceuticals without a license, which is technically what grandma is doing when she gets her vioxx in canada. the evil companies--ur, um, sorry--drug companies, would, of course, love it stopped so they can continue to gouge consumers and spend, what is it, five times more on advertising than on research and development. the folks they own in congress are trying to make it more difficult. fortunately, there's a pretty large public groundswell FOR the importation of drugs for personal use. the senate recently passed a bill to make it legal for people to import up to, i think, a three-month supply. i'm not sure if the house has passed similar legislation and if bush has vetoed it, which i suspect he'd do since he's a wholly-owned subsidiary of corporate USA, inc. at any rate, they catch little. my canadian allegra--which is OTC up there--came USPS. the other thing the drug companies do is stretch out patents on drugs. when a patent is about to expire, and a cheaper generic alternative drug will become available, they often file lawsuits, and/or frivolous new patents--several times based on things as trivial and new pill color or packaging--at which point there is an automatic patent extension while the matter is considered. there's a strong movement in congress to cut back on this. - -- brad daly bwdaly@bigfatpipe.net http://www.bigfatpipe.net/~bwdaly http://www.bigfatpipe.net/~bwdaly/paw.html "There's no way drugs can affect music in a negative way." --Brian Wilson "I pledge allegiance to Queen Frag and her mighty state of hysteria." --Calvin and Hobbes "War, what is it good for? It's good for business." --Billy Bragg - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html