Updated 3/14/2011:  Here below is another example of our beloved Government driving up the cost of health care.  It's so sad and pathetic:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/03/10/cost-spike-preterm-labor-drug-outrageous/#

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Those of you who follow this blog know that I have been, and remain, a fierce opponent of "Obamacare" and the underlying desire to nationalize health care here in the United States.

As a middle-aged male, I suffer from some chronic middle-aged associated medical conditions.  One of these conditions, which has actually plagued me since the tender age of 22, is gout .

Gout is a nasty condition associated with under-performing kidneys which do not flush out uric acid in sufficient quantity.  Excess uric acid then builds up in the blood, and when it reaches a tipping point, the liquid uric acid crystallizes in soft tissue - usually extremity joints.  The crystallization inflammatory process produces needle-like structures which cause intense pain and swelling.  Overtime, if left untreated, the body will store the excess uric acid in deposits called Tofi - hard, knobby calcium-like deposits that affix themselves to bone around joints, and sometimes develop in soft tissue.  As time goes by, the Tofi build up into unsightly knobs below the skin, and the gout attacks occur in greater frequency.  In short, it's no fun.

For fifteen years or so, I didn't seek treatment beyond anti-inflammatory drugs for the occasional attacks.  Every so often I would get a particularly severe attack that required an opiate based pain-killer.  Finally, after one particularly intense attack, my family physician convinced me to seek the help of a specialist.  Gout is considered a form of arthritis, so I was referred to a rheumatologist for treatment.  That doctor started me on a regimen of two drugs:  Allopurinol , and Colchicine.  I call Allopurinol the gout preventer, and Colchicine the gout buster, because the former helps the kidneys flush out the excess uric acid to prevent attacks, and later helps break up the uric acid crystals once formed, thereby breaking up an attack.

Yesterday I went to the local pharmacy for my monthly ritual of prescription refills and got a rude shock.  The drug Colchicine went from 90 cents a pill to a whopping $4.85 a pill. Do the math for a mere 30 days supply.

Unsatisfied with the pharmacist's explanation, last night I let my fingers do the walking across the internet to try to learn why the cost of this drug skyrocketed.  I bet by now you can guess why.

But first, a little history.  As noted in the above links, gout has been a human ailment far back into distant antiquity.  Considered a 'rich man's' disease, and presumed for centuries to be caused by a diet only the wealthy of the day could rightly afford.  In fact, the Egyptians were using a crude form of Colchicine in 1,500 BC.  The Romans were also fans of the drug. 

Fast forward 3,556 years.  Colchicine, as a drug, was never formally approved by the Federal Drug Administration because the drug pre-dated the existence of the FDA by 3,488 years.  However, in 2006, the FDA launched an "Unapproved Drugs Initiative" with the aim of having all drugs that pre-dated the vaunted FDA go through the same rigors as newly developed compounds.  In 2009 the FDA approved the use of Colchicine as safe and effective for gout, to the great relief of Ancient Egypt.

In exchange for engaging in the expensive rigors of testing ancient Colchicine to modern FDA standards, the drug maker URL Pharma was gifted a 7 year exclusivity grant (a legal monopoly) from the FDA, where URL Pharma could charge any amount for the drug they desired.  URL Pharma subsequently sued to stop generic makers from making or selling the drug, and thus "Colcrys", Colchicine-made-more-expensive was born.  I don't particularly blame URL Pharma for this debacle, however, I do note that, as an ancient compound already in wide circulation, URL Pharma by-passed all the usual early stages of chemistry research and design; essentially going direct to trials.  URL Pharma has the right to recoup their investment in the cost of the trials, however, I am highly skeptical that the new found price fixing of this drug is rationally in-line with recouping these costs, at a reasonable profit (despite their claims otherwise).

Starting with that aforementioned cruder form of the compound, Colchicine has been in continual use for around 4,000 years.   If there was any doubt that the drug was safe and effective for gout, I think it's equally safe to assume those doubts would have surfaced well before the FDA was born in 1938.    However, just because a drug has been used to successfully treat gout for 4,000 years means nothing to a stupid bureaucrat sitting in a comfortable office somewhere in Washington, DC.  So, an inexpensive generic drug just became hugely expensive, for the next seven years - for absolutely no good reason.  Not only is this drug now costing me big bucks, but estimates peg the increase in cost to Medicaid (hence taxpayers) at $50,000,000 per year.  And like all estimates of this type, I have very little doubt that guess is low.  Surely the Pharaohs are turning over in their graves.  

If this little drug had been left alone, those like me would still be paying a modest amount for relief from the terrible pain associated with gout.  But no, the government being what it is, had to get involved, and compulsively had to have that check box go from un-approved to approved, and didn't give two shits for the consequences to the public, for whom they are supposed to serve.

And even still, roughly 40% of Americans think it's a good idea to hand over all health care to stupid and completely indifferent bureaucrats.  It's supposed to be a good thing, Pharaoh Obama says so. 

We aren't a Stupid Nation for nothing.