They run constantly on T-V here. They flaunt the fact openly that 250,000 folks use Humira beneficially. "Humira is a medication used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, chronic psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis." "Humira costs approximately $4370 per month (2017)." Folks, if 250,000 people use it, the monthly revenue is 1,092,000,000 Dollars per month (1.092 BILLION $)! Try to find out how much it costs to produce it! Consider that when the patent rights ran out, a generic form came to market in India for $400 per month! Don't know if that's approved for sale here, though. If it were, would the drug company still be buying millions of dollars worth of advertising time? See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalimumab I find this disgusting......but that's just me. Frank
I hate and mute all commercials! The medical ones are the worst. Every move we make, we are remind we are on our way to the grave-if we do this or do not do this. And the meds of course can always help. BS. the side effects alone could kill you. Granted some meds do help, if they are affordable. Commercials are everywhere,tv,radio.phone, computer, billboards, tee shirts......even the dang phone home- to which we do not answer unless we know caller.
I, too, mute the commercials. Partly because they are processed sound and get overwhelming to my hearing aids and partly because they are irrelevant to me. If the drugs were affordable, they wouldn't have the money to advertise on TV. Mostly they are attempts to get people to pester their providers to prescribe brand name drugs when generics would most likely do the job.
@Gloria Mitchell @Don Alaska This evening, yet another touted as miraculous, almost, with frowning, in-pained expressions before, and smiling, athletic movements after: Enbrel, "Ask your Rheumatoloigist". I didn't know there was such a doctor! This stuff costs twice as much here than in some other countries: U.S. $ 2225 per month; Switzerland, $ 1017; Canada, $ 1646. U.S. and Canadian sales combined in 2010 were $ 3.5 Billion! "On May 2, 2008, the FDA placed a black box warning on etanercept due to a number of serious infections associated with the drug.[13] Serious infections and sepsis, including fatalities, have been reported with the use of etanercept including reactivation of latent tuberculosis and hepatitis B infections." See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etanercept How ill might you have to be to take some of this stuff? I wonder if I would, at all! Frank
Unfortunately, the U.S. shoulders most of the research costs for new drugs, and the FDA is the most expensive certification agency in the world. I once knew a Rheumatologist with an "experimental license" from the FDA to test off-label uses for drugs. He was among the first to use methotrexate to treat RA. His cohorts in the medical community tried to get his medical credentials revoked for gross malpractice for using a cancer drug to treat RA. He said his patients were in so much pain daily, that they were willing to try anything that would relieve their pain even knowing that the treatment might kill them. Methotrexate is now part of the standard treatment for RA and many other diseases and disorders. TB and HepB exposure should be tested prior to beginning any immune suppressant. I think it is on Trump's agenda to reduce the cost of drugs and make more drugs available to us, especially for the seriously and terminally ill. I'm sure the Dems will try to impeach him for doing it.
Some of these drugs are just plain scary, aren’t they ! When I was recently having problems with the tachycardia (racing heart) about 2 months ago, my cardiologist said that he could either increase my medications, or he could give me what he called a “pocket pill” that I only took if I had the tachycardia and it didn’t stop within a few hours. Since I never know when this might happen to me, and maybe won’t even happen again, and I didn’t want to increase the medicine that I take every day to keep my heart in rhythm, I opted for the pocket pill. We went to the pharmacy and picked it up, took it home, and I stated reading about this new medicine, and it has really strong warning labels that it can cause DEATH, and should only be taken under medical supervision, or given when in the hospital ........ Oh, my goodness , I am surely NOT taking that stuff ! If the heart gets bad, I will go to the ER first, and I told Bobby that only if I thought I was about to die anyway,and had no other alternative, would I ever take any of this medication. Apparently, people take this drug, and do okay; but with all of the serious side effects that can come with it, it seems a lot more sensible not to take it, and if I need it, they can administer it if I have to go to the ER because of the heart racing and not slowing down. It really scares me when it is racing at over 160 bpm, and keeps that up for hours. I know that my poor old heart can’t keep that up forever, and the next day, I am exhausted like I have been running all day long, even though I actually spent the day lying down. https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...gs-increase-risk-of-sudden-cardiac-death.aspx
The real danger with tachycardia is probably that you might slip into Ventricular Fibrillation, when your heart quivers but doesn't really pump blood. That, too, can result in sudden cardiac death. I have known people who took flecainide with no problems, but I wouldn't take it unless you were in danger and far from medical care. It would be a question of balancing your risk. Talk it over with your cardiologist and tell him/her your concerns about the risk of sudden cardiac death. Your doctor may have another alternative "pocket pill" that carries less risk.
I have actually had two ablations for my a-fib, which usually came along with the tachycardia, and right now, I have an implant that “reads” my heart and sends the information to my cardiologist. So far, now I have not been in a-fib again, and the heart comes back out on its own after the tachycardia episodes. The doctor told me that the next step would be a Pacemaker, and I truly want to avoid that if I can manage to keep from having to have one. This is why I am always reading and studying to see what things I can do to protect my health. Even if I can’t reverse it, I want to at least keep the progression slowed down as much as possible.
I don't like the Humira commercials because the product is pronounced as though it were spelled "Humerra". They don't pronounce the long "I" in the name. Hal
Yvonne, I had a short case of Tachycardia shortly after my first marriage, and it was attributed to friction between my new Wife and my Parents. My Parents thought they still "owned" me! After a few therapy sessions with a psychiatrist, the problem disappeared! The doctor convinced me that my allegiance was now to my Wife, not my Parents! Hal