Letter: Little sympathy for drug company profits

The opinions of experts and people who try to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in our country leaves most of us perplexed.

An article in the Tri-City Herald was titled, “Dying patients want easier access to experimental drugs. Experts say that’s bad medicine” by Melissa Healy from the Los Angeles Times. I loved the subtitle, “This is the most fundamental liberty we have: The right to save your own life.” Can you believe the fighting we’ve seen between groups who want the right to end life and those who oppose ending a life already begun?

The article is about patients who are terminal. A bill for the “right-to-try” experimental drugs is the subject. Currently, clinical trials can be halted or delayed if a drug has side effects or hastens a patient’s death. The bill could also jeopardize a company’s multimillion-dollar investment. We are told that when death occurs, the FDA takes a patient’s dire state into account. FDA needs proof that a drug will work.

I have very little sympathy for the profitability of drug companies. We pay $130 for a pill that costs 60 cents. There are common drugs that exceed 20,000 percent markup.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 4:13 AM with the headline "Letter: Little sympathy for drug company profits."