Big Pharma Is Pushing a Big Lie

newrepublic.com

By Audrey Farley    levels B2-C1 

big pharma

In June of 2017, 26-year-old Alec Raeshawn Smith died on the floor of his apartment from diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition where, without insulin, the blood turns acidic and causes organ failure. His mother, Nicole Smith-Holt, found his body next to an empty vial of insulin. Just two months previously, Antroinette Worsham found her 22-year-old daughter, Antavia, under similar circumstances—dead and out of insulin.

(1)_______________ prices have led 1 in 4 insulin-dependent individuals to ration an essential medication, without a doctor’s supervision or approval, often with serious, and sometimes fatal complications. In reaction, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a May 13 public hearing on the production of biosimilar insulins, the latest attempt by the federal government to explore ways to lower insulin costs.

Lawmakers have floated other measures to reduce the cost of drugs to consumers, such as capping U.S. list prices at the median in other developed nations, authorizing Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices, and allowing the personal importation of prescription drugs from Canada. The pharmaceutical industry has invariably responded to these proposals by blaming high costs on “middlemen” who don’t pass rebates to patients and by doubling down on the “innovation” myth—the unproven notion that high list prices are necessary to fund tomorrow’s (2)_________________________.

For instance, at an April House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on insulin prices, a representative of Sanofi, a French multinational pharmaceutical company, began her testimony with an anecdote about how Sanofi’s PCSK9 inhibitors (the latest generation of cholesterol drugs) saved the lives of her husband and 7-year-old son, both of whom have a genetic (3)_______________ called Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH). In doing so, she inferred that the steep price of insulin and other drugs is necessary to advance medicine and protect future generations.

The trouble is Sanofi didn’t identify the PCSK9 gene or link this protein-regulating gene to FH. Nor did the company have the idea to develop PCSK9 inhibitors to reduce the risk of cardiac events in those with this condition. Researchers at public hospitals and universities around the world collaborated on these tasks. Until very recently, Sanofi’s PCSK9 inhibitor, Praluent, (4)________________  at $14,000 per year and was not always covered by insurance. Like insulin, the drug was priced out of many patients’ reach.

It’s common for industry representatives to tell stories of individuals whose lives have been saved by innovation—or of individuals who are desperately waiting for a breakthrough. These emotional appeals should not distract from the facts: Big Pharma does not apply the majority of profits from costly medicines to research and development (R&D); Big Pharma does not drive innovation; and Big Pharma does not meaningfully invest in treatments for rare and neglected diseases. It’s important to understand the industry’s actual role in the development of (5)________________________ medicines.

big pharma

Industry spending on R&D is a fraction of what it spends on marketing and lobbying, and as many academics and journalists have noted, it also pales in comparison to the drug manufacturers’ claims. They say it costs about $2.6 billion dollars to develop a new drug. The cost, according to consumer advocacy groups like Public Citizen, is actually closer to $161 million—an amount manufacturers can sometimes make back within days of introducing a product.

Drugmakers would also have us believe that scientists in corporate laboratories conduct the “basic” or preliminary research for most new medicines.  In reality, it is the federal government that funds 84 percent of initial drug research, and charitable organizations additionally contribute on top of that.

Americans pay twice for their drugs—first as (6)______________________ and then again as consumers.

Seventy-eight percent of patents recently approved by the FDA were for medications already on the market; and only 1 percent of R&D funding was (7)_______________ to rare and neglected diseases between 2000 and 2011.

Too often, patents hinder innovation by deterring the creation of generics, restricting access to research, and stifling the free exchange of information. For instance, engaging in “pay-for-delay” schemes (paying generic manufacturers to delay bringing a product to market).

The make-believe pipeline from pharmaceutical laboratories to newer, better medicines has (8)_____________ measures to put existing drugs within patients’ reach.

It is past time for policymakers to scrutinize the drug industry’s claims to ingenuity. Debunking the myth of innovation is a step toward protecting the hundreds of thousands of medication-dependent Americans who are being gouged for profits on drugs they likely helped pay to create.

EXERCISES

1. Put the words in the blank spaces

a. lifesaving       b. retailed      c. taxpayers     d. breakthroughs      

e. allotted       f. disorder      g. Skyrocketing h. obstructed

2. Find in the text the synonims to the following words:

OBSTRUCT    ENDOW     UNMASK, RIDICULE     BENEFIT     PHASE

SUPPORT, BACKING    ASSUMED     LIMITING   REDUCE

3. choose A, B, C from the following questions

1. in the third paragraph the expression “double down” means…       a.- to reduce something by half          b.- to reduce somebody’s efforts  c.- to become more tenacious, or resolute in a position

2. big pharma…            a.- needs a lot of time to make profits from new medicines  b.- occasionaly take only short time to make profits from new medicines           c.- generally doesn’t take much time to make profits out of new medicines

3.- research and development is…             a.- the main expense of big pharma          b.- an important part of the expense of big pharma           c.- a minimum part of the expense of big pharma    #englishreadings #b1b2exercises #englishclasses #englishonline #inglesonline #clasesingles