Monopoly in medicine is bad?

I'm not sure what "Big Pharma" is supposed to be made up of: the largest pharmaceutical corporations are in competition with one another, so the idea that they can be grouped under a uniform umbrella as if they were a single entity doesn't make sense to me.

Talking about competing corporations in the medical field as if they were working in unison seems to me akin to talking about Microsoft and Apple as "Big Software" or Toyota and General Motors as "Big Automobile." They're competitors; the fact that they have to compete for profit is, by definition, evidence that there's no monopoly. A monopoly consists of only one entity having exclusive access to the market, which is not the case in the pharmaceutical industry.

 

“Big Pharma” is more of an American thing. I mean obviously there’s not really a monopoly there either. But they do hold an unnerving amount of power. One that is barely held back by commerce laws of other places.
Though they can affect even places with universal healthcare. Maybe not as much as they do in the US, but they try to chip away what they can in even my country
(And I’m using the term “they” not to imply there is some evil cabal of Big Pharma plotting against us. It was just easier than typing out each and every company name lol.)

 

Where I live “healthy alternatives” are just down the road lol
Indeed there’s a health shop in a major shopping centre near me, I can go to alternative medicinal places if I so choose. They’re everywhere.
My local GP bulk bills, my meds have always been pretty cheap and any emergency I’ve had is automatically paid for, since it comes from the taxes.
I can choose whatever doc I want, I can choose not to take their advice or take their prescription. All chemists must offer the cheap “home brand” version of any prescription, if I want to go for the cheap alternative.
I mean, there’s issues certainly in my country’s Medicare system, don’t get me wrong. The aforementioned big conglomerates trying to chip away at our bargaining “rights” by trying to charge our government more and more for certain drugs. That’s happening and is certainly a concern.
So I mean, I guess I can agree?

Again I’m from a country where that’s against the law, for the most part. My government must buy medicine in bulk and wholesale, but on the cheap. This does somewhat limit the drugs available, like experimental treatments that may be available in the US for example. But that’s a trade off I’m willing to have, if it means not going bankrupt for daring to be sick. Granted we as country must remain vigilant since I know our government would rather pocket the profit. But they know that if they outright get rid of my country’s Medicare, it’s political suicide. So they try to chip away at it instead. Hence remaining vigilant.

You mean like that Dr Oz bloke? Yeah the US “big pharma” does like to do that to once respected doctors. It’s sad to watch
Someone told me he’s running for some kind of government role. Crazy!!

“Big Pharma” runs like all conglomerates. But they’re really more of an issue in the US, truth be told