Summary
According to a report, the cost for new drugs for cancer in United Kingdom is very low compared with many other well-off countries such as Australia, New Zealand, France, Switzerland, and Sweden. While prices of drugs in Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland are the highest, United Kingdom, Greece, Spain and Portugal pay the least on average. Any discounts for prices of drugs remain secret so Sabine Vogler, who is the author of the report, said that there were some risks for some countries to overpay for drugs. He insisted that the discounts should be more transparent and countries be able to see if they are overpaying. David Watson, who is a director of pricing at the pharmaceutical industry in British, said that United Kingdom was getting a fair deal about medicines pricing.
Opinion
I have never thought that I may have overpaid for drugs or medicines so this article was very interesting for me. According to the article, the official list of prices of drugs are freely available, but discounts are secret and as a result, prices of drugs are different among high-income countries. In my opinion, we should have free competitive market and so if there are some points which prevent the market being free and fair by being kept secret, we should get rid of that points. Studying world history, I have felt that United Kingdom have been very wise to do business historically. This article did not say the reason why United Kingdom pay less for drugs, but this fact strengthen that feeling of mine. However, from this view, I cannot explain why Greece, Spain, Portugal are also like United Kingdom. I would like to study more about this problem.