"One point only. US pharmaceutical companies often charge on an "ability to pay" basis. They will ship huge amounts of a given medicine to poor African countries at 10¢ on the dollar as compared to private US customers."pdq

You do come out with gems that boggle the mind. (Remember the taxes?) I truly don't know where you get your information.

"US pharmaceutical companies often charge on an "ability to pay" basis."? Where and when do they do this? Many times one is able to get a generic version of the expensive product- but guess what- the pharmaceutical business is not totally happy with it.

Most price breaks occur when a doctor gives a patient s number of free sample packets that s/he received from salesmen, rather than on a pay-as-you-can basis at the pharmacy.

"They will ship huge amounts of a given medicine to poor African countries at 10¢ on the dollar as compared to private US customers"?

Years ago I worked at a doctors' clinic. Guess what we did with our outdated pills? Yep. We sent them to a clearinghouse whence the medications travelled overseas. Everything from antibiotics to birth control pills. All with expired dates.