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Living Like Don Draper
- Now that daisy and I have moved back to sweet home, Chicago, I'm realizing how many stark differences there are between my life ...
Drug Money
22 January 2010, 11:48pm
Not too long ago, I went to India. Before going to India, I went to a few pharmacies to buy ciprofloxacin. It's a hard core antibiotic for when you don't have enough strength to leave the toilet because all of your strength has already left you.
I was in Hangzhou at the time, with daisy. The first pharmacy we went into said we needed a prescription. Bummer. So we started walking towards a foreigner hospital before I realized I didn't have my passport, so I wouldn't be able to get a scrip anyway. We tried one more place, then another.
The third place didn't ask for a prescription. Nice.
I inspected the box carefully, even sent a message to lizerbeam. It looked legit. Exactly the same as the other places that required prescriptions. And it was behind a counter, which meant maybe the lady just wanted some commission sales.
It was 10RMB. At the time of this writing, google says it's $1.46. For a pack of twenty.
This report shows the difference between branded and unbranded courses of cipro. I'm shocked. In the states, branded cipro is $101.27. And I paid $1.46 for the same stuff but with a different box.
comments
Will
[25 January 2010]I think a big part of this is that in America, the companies that actually make the drugs need to recoup their R&D costs through high prices and without them the drugs wouldn't be made. But our intellectual property laws don't apply in China. Kind of like if everyone paid Chinese prices for dvds, none of the movies would actually be made because movie studios wouldn't be able to make back all those big budgets.
Will
[25 January 2010]I think a big part of this is that in America, the companies that actually make the drugs need to recoup their R&D costs through high prices and without them the drugs wouldn't be made. But our intellectual property laws don't apply in China. Kind of like if everyone paid Chinese prices for dvds, none of the movies would actually be made because movie studios wouldn't be able to make back all those big budgets.
THE Lowly Peon
[25 January 2010]agreed. but i have to note that jewel (or albertsons) brand cheerios taste a lot like the expensive stuff.
(but not quite the same. oh man. there's nothing like honey nut cheerios. or team cheerios!)
Benji!
[25 January 2010]Will: You and I have hashed this out before elsewhere, but to summarize my opinion for everyone else: I don't think that's true. The companies making the drugs still would or other companies would jump in to fill their place, they just wouldn't make as much money. I'd be interested in seeing any sort of research done that disproves me though. (As long as the research is being done by someone other than the drug companies. It is in there interest for people to think that.)