The United States Spends More on Top-Selling Drugs Than the Rest of the World *Combined*

The United States of America continues to force its citizens to pay for the worst of both worlds when it comes to a medical system that is socialized in many regards, but remains capitalist-in-name-only.

The U.S. has outspent every other country in the world combined when it comes to the top-selling 20 pharmaceutical drugs, according to a recent analysis by Public Citizen.

“Americans spent a total of $101.1 billion, while the rest of the world spent $56.8 billion, on the top 20 drugs,” the Epoch Times summarized. “The key findings of the analysis report (pdf) indicate that U.S. consumers overpay for drugs, and do not necessarily intake more than people from other countries.”

“The best-selling 20 drugs brought $157.8 billion in total global revenue for pharma companies with the U.S. accounting for 64 percent of the revenue pie,” the report continued. “The sizable disparity makes the U.S. market essentially a cash cow for Big Pharma, which is fighting efforts to decrease the spending.”

Public Citizen gave a list of its key findings:

For 17 of the 20 top-selling drugs worldwide in 2020, pharmaceutical corporations made more money from U.S. sales than from sales to all other countries in the rest of the world combined.
• U.S. sales of the 20 top-selling drugs totaled $101.1 billion while sales to the rest of the world totaled nearly $57 billion. In other words, the U.S. spent almost double what the rest of the world combined did on these top 20 drugs.
• For 11 of the 20 top-selling drugs worldwide, U.S. sales revenue was double revenue to the sales of the rest of the world or more.
• 11 of the 13 pharmaceutical companies selling these top drugs made more money in the United States from these drugs than they did in the rest of the world combined.
• Drugs with significant sales revenue disparities between the U.S. and the rest of the world include:
o Gilead Sciences’ HIV medication Biktarvy, which had U.S. sales revenue
five times greater than the rest of the world;
o AbbVie’s autoimmune disease drug Humira, which had U.S. sales revenue
four times greater than the rest of the world; and
o Eli Lily’s type 2 diabetes drug Trulicity, Roche’s multiple sclerosis drug
Ocrevus and Amgen and Pfizer’s autoimmune disease drug Enbrel, all
three of which had U.S. sales revenue more than triple the rest of the world.

One example of the U.S.’s socializing costs and privatizing profits is the way it has subsidized Big Pharma’s push for universal vaccination of Americans regardless of risk, while shielding these companies from liability.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief of health agency NIAID, recently gave his backing to a new experimental Covid treatment called molnupiravir, an oral treatment with ‘impressive’ results being manufactured by Merck.

Merck is also the manufacturer of ivermectin, which has come under the microscope for media criticism.

In February, Merck issued a statement disavowing Ivermectin’s suitability for Covid-19 treatment.

Company scientists continue to carefully examine the findings of all available and emerging studies of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 for evidence of efficacy and safety. It is important to note that, to-date, our analysis has identified:

• No scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against COVID-19 from pre-clinical studies;
• No meaningful evidence for clinical activity or clinical efficacy in patients with COVID-19 disease, and;
• A concerning lack of safety data in the majority of studies.

We do not believe that the data available support the safety and efficacy of ivermectin beyond the doses and populations indicated in the regulatory agency-approved prescribing information

However, a study in the American Journal of Therapeutics published in June 2021 drew a much different conclusion.

“Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease,” the study concluded. “The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally.”

Ivermectin was touted recently as having played a major role in India’s recovery from Covid, even as it remains a relatively low-vaccination country. However, it was recently removed from India’s medical Covid treatment protocol.

“Studies also found there was no clarity on mortality benefit, no effect on length of hospital stay and recovery in case of Ivermectin,” India Today reported.

“Recommending that Ivermectin be dropped from the clinical guidance, experts cited 13 systematic reviews of which ‘7/13 showed mortality benefit, 4/13 no mortality benefit, 2/13 inconclusive/unclear’,” the report continued. Over half of the studies, therefore, showed ‘mortality benefit’ according to the experts.

One plausible reason for the pharmaceutical company abandoning Ivermectin as a potential Covid-19 treatment is simple: Profit motive.

“The average cost for 4 Tablet(s), 3mg each of the generic (ivermectin) is $21.09,” WebMD recently noted, although prices are rapidly increasing, adding that “you can buy ivermectin at the discounted price of $11.44.”

The U.S. government is set to buy 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir at $700 each, Reuters reported on Friday.

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