There is no free market at play here. This is the result of FDA regulations not allowing anyone to sell it unless they did a New Drug Application first, which could cost a billion or more. Therefore nobody in the free market was allowed to sell it without putting up the capital first, which they have to collect back now.
You could actually order this from amazon.de up until recently and have it shipped to you. That seems to have disappeared, though.
This is true. When you look at actually free markets -- like the gray markets in bodybuilding drugs, "nootropics," peptides, etc. -- you'll find that there's usually a race to the bottom on price, and that everything is easily affordable out of pocket. Quality also tends to be okay, as lab reports are one of the primary ways that customers rank and differentiate between brands.
And these aren't necessarily old pharma hand-me-downs. There are lots of novel and strange drugs (9-MBC, lol) that you can buy for next to nothing.
Drugs and healthcare products should definitely be regulated so people get quality products with provable efficacy. Saying that, how the hell does an application for a new drug with the FDA cost $1Bn?! Clearly something is wrong there.
I know, the problem with drugs in USA is the control a few corporations have over the politicians and the market, that's the reason health care and all related things are so expensive there compared to Europe.
Aurornis|2 months ago
You could actually order this from amazon.de up until recently and have it shipped to you. That seems to have disappeared, though.
A_D_E_P_T|2 months ago
And these aren't necessarily old pharma hand-me-downs. There are lots of novel and strange drugs (9-MBC, lol) that you can buy for next to nothing.
flumpcakes|2 months ago
TheOtherHobbes|2 months ago
An NDA requires peer-reviewed studies, and something that looks at least a little like scientific rigour.
Of course we could just not bother with that.
Is that really a smart thing to do?
terminalshort|2 months ago
ghostDancer|2 months ago