Production costs, drugs

Freeze-drying is a relatively expensive drying operation. Although this is not an issue for many high-cost drug products, it can be an issue for more cost-sensitive products. 

The production of drugs under GMP conditions is costly, especially for protein-based drugs, which require aseptic processes. Manufacturers have looked to... 

Poor prescribing may also involve using a new costly drug when a more established product would work as well. Conversely, physicians who do not keep up with new drug discoveries may keep their patients on drugs that are less effective or are causing side effects when newer, better alternatives are available. 

Figure 7.3 Like crime-related costs and loss of productivity costs, health care costs associated with drug use have risen every year since 1992. The costs of drug use prevention are far cheaper than treatment.

Residues have the potential to cause significant monetary losses to livestock industry. The livestock producer can have direct financial losses from violative drug residues through condemnations of carcasses at slaughter, rejection of milk, increased production costs, test costs, and regulatory action. 

In conclusion, the vast literature and its derivatives, particularly artesunate, artemether, and arteether, point out to the need to make these derivatives in quantities that would reduce their current production cost to make these drugs accessible to the economically underprivileged societies that are often the victims of malaria. A recent promising method in which artemisinic acid, a precursor to artemisinin, has been produced in engineered yeast. Therefore, microbially produced artemisinic acid holds promise to the syntheses of antimalarial drugs at affordable prices <2006N940>. Furthermore, anticancer activities of artemisinin 1 and its derivatives have been reviewed <2005MI995>. 

The financial toll is enormous as well. The Office of National Dmg Control Policy estimated an economic loss due to illicit drugs of over 160 billion from the U.S. economy for the year 2000. This figure represented an increase of 5.8% annually between 1998 and 2000, and included 14.8 billion in healthcare costs and 110.4 billion in lost productivity from drug-related illness, incarceration, and death. 

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