Big Pharma’s Chokehold

Dr. Russell Sanders fumes after reading a NYT report on how drug companies price-gouge kids with asthma. One company, for example, charges Americans $250 for a nasal spray that retails for $7 in Europe:

I learned of this revolting turn of events a couple of years ago when a mother asked if there were an alternative I could prescribe for her child’s Flovent. Inhaled fluticasone is one of the most commonly used medications for patients with persistent asthma, a low-dose steroid that calms the chronic inflammation that predisposes these patients’ airways to spasm. Generic fluticasone was the medication I intended to prescribe (or, rather, renew) to keep this particular patient’s asthma in good control, thereby obviating the risk that she would have worsening of her illness and possibly end up hospitalized. She had no option to do without it.

“Why would she be getting Flovent?” I asked. “Fluticasone has been around…