Why Are Drug Monopolies Running Amok? Meet Deborah Feinstein

One of the biggest policy debates in America today concerns the unparalleled rise in prescription drug costs. Enormous pharmaceutical industry profit margins; tales of companies like Turing, Valeant, and Gilead Sciences jacking up the price of life-saving medicines; and a spate of industry mergers (the latest being a $150 billion deal between Pfizer and Allergan, designed mostly to lower their tax rates) have lawmakers and presidential candidates scrambling for answers.

DYI Quick Comment (1):  Biggest policy debates?  Rarely presidential contenders discuss the mad dash of not just big pharma but of the consolidation  of the entire medical industry.  Their campaign dollars are immense so its mum's the word or quickly change the subject such as the war on terror. 

But one point has been lost among the various proposals: The U.S. has had antitrust laws on the books for over 100 years to reduce the power of monopolies and restrain consumer costs. They could come in handy in situations like these.

 DYI Quick Comment (2):  You bet we do:  Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890...The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914...The Robinson–Patman Act of 1936...All designed to put an end to consolidation and anti competitive pricing schemes notorious for hospitals/pharma etc.

Bernie Sanders recognized this when he urged the Obama administration to block the Pfizer-Allergan merger. Hillary Clinton has promised to “stop corporate concentration” in the pharmaceutical industry.

DYI Quick Comment (3):  Hillary Clinton "promised" to end corporate concentration??  She is a big government /  big business politician from day one.

The problem is that the federal agency responsible for antitrust oversight of drug companies — the Federal Trade Commission — has a terrible track record of supporting the public interest. 

 And the reason why can be seen in the career trajectory of one woman: Deborah Feinstein, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, the agency’s main enforcement entity. During Feinstein’s tenure, the FTC has largely abandoned its attempts to block mergers, instead favoring consent agreements that have a history of failing to achieve their goals. 

DYI Quick Comment (4):  Deborah Feinstein is just one of many who have either failed or mislead the public into thinking they are protecting the public from monopolies or oligarchs.  It becomes a bit of a hit piece against Mrs. Feinstein where as the FTC (and many other government agencies) have become a revolving door for years between corporate lawyers representing the medical industrial complex and their representative government agencies.

The Solution:  Only until it becomes common knowledge and political will from the people will these problems be addressed.  The seeds of this change have already been planted with the Millennial generation as they are now forced by law to purchase an inflated insurance scheme designed to keep the party (revenues) going for the medical industrial complex.  As these prices sky rocket Millennials will dig in their heels for change.  This will occur as they become older and obtain political power as a voting block electing their leaders of the same mind set.

In a prior post I addressed how the U.S. oscillates from pro business to pro labor as currently we are in the turning phase. These articles ( I hope to see many more) will build that necessary consensus to the critical mass level; once achieved massive change will occur benefiting our citizens (labor).

Free enterprise will solve these high prices once the pro labor movement surges forward dissolving crony capitalism.  But alas two or three decades (from the time pro labor is firmly in place) the cost of labor will become wildly over priced and we will enter into the turning phase back to pro business. This yin and yang for business and labor has been going on since the first arrivals to America.  

DYI