#1024 Heart Burned

Way back when I was in high school, the type of person that we were told was the lowest of the low, the scum of the earth, the avaricious predator we should most often avoid, was the drug dealer.
In “Reefer Madness” and similar government sponsored cautionary reels, the drug dealer was always depicted as a slimy, runny-nosed weasel, tricking the innocent and then running off with his ill-gotten profits. It was enough to give you insomnia, the nervous jitters, and heartburn.
Which brings me to an interesting subject. The other day my dad was telling me he was following the advice of his pharmacist and not his doctor. His doctor had prescribed him Nexium for his hiatal hernia.
Hiatal hernias are like an ulcer of the esophagus. The immediate culprit is acid from the stomach squirting back into the lower esophagus.
It’s part of that old prescription cycle. He takes medication to control his arthritis, one of the side effects of which is acid reflux, so he has to take another medication for that.
In any event, Nexium costs $200 for a 30-day supply. His pharmacist pointed out that over-the-counter Prilosec costs only $10 for the same amount. The only difference is, Prilosec contains half the dosage of Nexium. And here’s the really funny thing. They are both made by the drug company AstraZeneca.
The same AstraZeneca that comes on at the end of some drug commercials and says “if you can’t afford this medication AstraZeneca can help.”
Well yeah! Don’t charge ten times as much for the same thing.
So I wondered, what’s the extra profit for, a doctor kickback or something?
Then I found the answer. Last year the drug industry spent 73.9 billion dollars on marketing and administration. They spent only 28.8 billion on research and development.
“So here’s what we do,” says marketing and administration. “Let’s take this cheap Prilosec, double the dose so the feds can’t authorize it for over-the-counter, and raise the price 1000 percent. And then we give the customer the first time free...”
Now that’s a drug deal!
It’s nice to know drug dealers have finally found a socially acceptable niche.
America, ya gotta love it.