U.S. drug patents are the Devil's work. Just to give a particularly egregious example, the spouse and I have reached the stage of life where we're having playdates with orthopedic surgeons, and...
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U.S. drug patents are the Devil's work.
Just to give a particularly egregious example, the spouse and I have reached the stage of life where we're having playdates with orthopedic surgeons, and pain/inflammation management to maintain healthy levels of activity is a big deal.
Since oral NSAIDs have nasty GI side effects for long-term use, some bright spark originated a simple formula to blend diclofenac (a powerful, but very GI-unfriendly anti-inflammatory) with dimethylsulfoxide (a relatively safe solvent that can carry other chemicals through skin), so that dosing bypasses the GI tract.
The proprietary product, a gel lotion called Pennsaid, contains a few dollars worth of generic chemicals. Its medical use and safety profile is based on decades of public research on both compounds, with minimal additional testing to verify that Pennsaid can be used in combination with safer but less effective orally-administered NSAIDs. Pennsaid used to be a gold-standard treatment adjunct for orthopedic patients with chronic pain not well-controlled using oral medications. Our experience was much better pain relief - enough to continue martial arts, aerobics, weightlifting, etc., with lower overall NSAID use and fewer side effects.
Most insurance plans (including ours) no longer pay for Pennsaid, though it's a safe, effective, non-addictive treatment, because a 200 ml bottle now costs $2,600. There are no generic formulations, as minor patent tweaks have kept the drug formula proprietary until 2029 and beyond. There's only very recent competition in the marketplace. Similar formulations use the same patented methods, so generic diclofenac gel is noticeably less effective even with the same active ingredient.
Shennanigous drug pricing tactics like this are one of the underlying factors in the U.S. opioid addiction crisis. Basic safe medicines and therapies became unaffordable, while opiates were cheap.
Meanwhile, it's good to live in a legal medical marijuana state... though similar tactics are going on with refined cannabinoids and transdermal gels/patches.
And, sorry again to our insurance company, but it's now early joint replacement surgeries (about 10 - 15 years younger than in countries with adequate therapy coverage), instead of ineffective medical management.
U.S. drug patents are the Devil's work.
Just to give a particularly egregious example, the spouse and I have reached the stage of life where we're having playdates with orthopedic surgeons, and pain/inflammation management to maintain healthy levels of activity is a big deal.
Since oral NSAIDs have nasty GI side effects for long-term use, some bright spark originated a simple formula to blend diclofenac (a powerful, but very GI-unfriendly anti-inflammatory) with dimethylsulfoxide (a relatively safe solvent that can carry other chemicals through skin), so that dosing bypasses the GI tract.
The proprietary product, a gel lotion called Pennsaid, contains a few dollars worth of generic chemicals. Its medical use and safety profile is based on decades of public research on both compounds, with minimal additional testing to verify that Pennsaid can be used in combination with safer but less effective orally-administered NSAIDs. Pennsaid used to be a gold-standard treatment adjunct for orthopedic patients with chronic pain not well-controlled using oral medications. Our experience was much better pain relief - enough to continue martial arts, aerobics, weightlifting, etc., with lower overall NSAID use and fewer side effects.
Most insurance plans (including ours) no longer pay for Pennsaid, though it's a safe, effective, non-addictive treatment, because a 200 ml bottle now costs $2,600. There are no generic formulations, as minor patent tweaks have kept the drug formula proprietary until 2029 and beyond. There's only very recent competition in the marketplace. Similar formulations use the same patented methods, so generic diclofenac gel is noticeably less effective even with the same active ingredient.
Shennanigous drug pricing tactics like this are one of the underlying factors in the U.S. opioid addiction crisis. Basic safe medicines and therapies became unaffordable, while opiates were cheap.
Meanwhile, it's good to live in a legal medical marijuana state... though similar tactics are going on with refined cannabinoids and transdermal gels/patches.
And, sorry again to our insurance company, but it's now early joint replacement surgeries (about 10 - 15 years younger than in countries with adequate therapy coverage), instead of ineffective medical management.