The American Spectator

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Special Report

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Got that? Pharmaceutical executives and companies are evil because they make expensive prescription drugs.

I, for one, want to thank America's pharmaceutical companies for those expensive drugs. They have kept me alive for 21 years after I could have died, and would have, through most of our history. They have kept me functioning actively and out of the hospital and off dialysis. They have spared me broken bones and kept me breathing. And now, as I head toward another kidney transplant, expensive drugs will give me a renewed life once again -- an absolutely normal life, making a living, taking care of my kids. Drugs will be more expensive this time around, and a good thing, too. Improved immunosuppressants have boosted the success rate for live related donor kidney transplants from about 65 percent, at the time of my first transplant, to better than 90 percent today.

The alternative is far more costly, both to individuals and to society. The bill is paid in hospital stays, ambulance fees, emergency room visits, and lost productivity. The bill is paid, not to put to fine a point on it, in death. And if drug companies make money on the process, well, that's how it works: Without the profits, there would be no drugs.

Come fall, you may find me standing next to Douglas Forrester, explaining all that and shaking his hand. I might say something else, too, just to prove that I can be as mean as a Democratic consultant. I might say, "Robert Torricelli wants me dead."

topics:
Trade, Health Care, NATO