I doubt this little price break will last . I am sure there is a plan in congress to rewrite the law so pharma can have their profits back on these drugs . Just watch and see.

Trust me, they'll survive. I'm going blind. There is an old, not terribly expensive drug that is injected into my eyes once a month. Originally a cancer drug, but effective for this. The manufacturer immediately created a slightly different molecular structure drug, pushed it through the FDA for approval for use for this condition. Price? $270 per injection for the old, partly covered by insurance. $2700 per injection for the new one(Lucentis). And now the FDA is withdrawing approval for the old one, used in breast cancer treatment. If the old one is taken off the market, I can't afford the new one. However, the pharmaceutical company will do well. Have to keep our perspective, don't we?

The drug companies will just find new versions of old drugs. They combine two older drugs to work together and make a 'new' drug', i.e. Caduet, and have a patent on it. The cost of the 'new' hybrid drug is 4 to 5 times the cost of the 2 older generic drugs, which both work very well. Patients don't know this info and end up buying the newer combination and pay through the nose for it. People should always ask their pharmacy for the generic equivalents of their prescriptions and if you are prescribed a new hybrid drug that have generic equivalents, ask the doctor to prescribe the two older generics and save a LOT of money each month. So you take two pills instead of one, better than spending all that money and rewarding the drug companies for this kind of stuff.

To Rick-1103809,

I am sorry for your situation. Is there any chance that you could get the drug through Canada? And you are correct, the drug companies will survive and even come out better. They always blame research and development costs for the pricing in new drugs but why take the old one off the market too? They effectively and intentionally close out the less fortunate to the only drug that will help them, without conscience.

It isn't like the old drug doesn't work or is a dangerous drug, so why take it off the market? Who does that serve other than the greedy drug companies? And the drug companies sell the exact same drugs that are prescribed and sold to Americans at huge cost to other countries for so little money. We are essentially paying for the free or low cost programs in other countries. And why isn't the FDA doing something about these practices? Perhaps because they are in bed with the drug companies. The FDA didn't have to take the old drug you need off the market, they could have allowed it to be manufactured by a generic drug company so people could still afford it. But the FDA goes along with the big drug companies and that is nasty business.

Obama will claim the credit for this.