HOSPITALS BAND TOGETHER TO FORM THEIR OWN DRUG COMPANY
Do you know when drug prices aren’t just too high, they’ve been too high for a long time? When Hospitals, HOSPITALS, organize into a coalition to start their own drug company. Why would they want to do that? To compete, directly, with big pharma. In the past couple weeks several of the largest hospitals made the announcement that they will use their collective resources to create a not-for-profit company. That company would be dedicated to produce and then sell a number of generic drugs directly back to the hospitals with prices far lower than those from Big Pharma. That would save a lot of money. Take that, you blood suckers.
HOSPITALS AIM TO SAVE MONEY, AVOID BIG PHARMA PRICE FIXING OF GENERIC DRUGS
One immediate result of this plan is that another producer of these drugs will eliminate shortages of them. If there’s a stable supply of these generic drugs, then shortages will no longer result in price markups. Those shortages always seem to pad big pharma’s profits at the expense of patients and….. hospitals. So far, the new company does not have a name. But it will need to be approved by the FDA to manufacture drugs. Then it could produce the drugs itself or use subcontractors to have them made by reputable third parties. The coalition can save money in production, save money with stable supply pricing and save money by removing the middle man.
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OVER 300 U.S. HOSPITALS IN COALITION, SO FAR
The chief executive of Intermountain Healthcare, Dr. Marc Harrison, said, “This is a shot across the bow of the bad guys.” Intermountain is a Utah-based nonprofit hospital chain. They are the force leading the effort to start the still-unnamed drug company. “We are not going to lay down. We are going to go ahead and try and fix it.” Other members of the coalition include Ascension, Trinity Health and SSM Health. All of them together represent more than 300 hospitals across the United States.
NEW COMPANY NAME, PLANS, STRATEGY REMAIN SECRET FOR NOW
But the group has a lot of help, as well. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is working with the coalition as a consultant. But there’s also a slew of researchers and drug policy experts that are offering their input as well. As the snowball has started rolling, other hospitals have expressed interest in joining the coalition as well. To date there’s very little really information about the new company, especially which drugs they may seek to produce themselves. But that’s sound strategy; if Big Pharma doesn’t know, they can’t manipulate pricing ahead of time and isolate the new venture.
One detail that seems firm is that the new company will be up and running as soon as next year.
