The wonder drugs of present times help to keep pain at bay and cholesterol levels low. They also guarantee good mood, strong sexual prowess and lots of other benefits.

Unfortunately, many Amercicans are feeling the pain in their pocketbooks, instead of general relief as the costs of prescription drug reported to be increasing at twice the factor of inflation.

"These drugs do help a lot of people - that's why it's such a shame that they are so expensive and out of reach for so many," stated Dee Mahan who is a deputy director of health policy at Families USA from Washington, D.C., a nonprofit consumer organization that has fought for lower prices of drug.

Mahan said: "Prices are much lower in other countries. You can't help but feel as an American that you're getting gouged with the prices here."

A spokesman for the industry group PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America), Jeff Trewhitt, had a diefferent opinion.

"The critics have done a good job of distorting the cost record," Trewhitt said. "The fact is, prescription drugs (including generics) account for about 11 percent of each health-care dollar, with hospitals, doctors, surgeries, the cost of medical equipment and other expenses accounting for the remaining 89 cents."

More importantly, Trewhitt claimed, the disease-management powers of a large number of these drugs - such as antidepressant SSRIs or cholesterol-lowering statins - are actually saving "billions of dollars" of the health-care system and the consumers as they preclude expensive and complicated care such as surgery and hospitalizations.

"For example, the average cost of an anti-ulcer drug is about $900 a year. When a patient takes the medicine and avoids the surgery, he avoids paying an average of $28,000 for the operation. The average cost of a heart disease drug is $1,200 a year, compared to an average of about $42,000 for coronary artery bypass surgery." - Trewhitt emphasized.

Mahan stated she doesn't deny either of Trewhitt's points, despite the fact that she is sure the cost of prescription drugs in health-care spending is "a little higher" than the 11 percent he mentioned.

In her opinion lots of expensive new medications save lives and keep patients from having to experience even much more expensive interventions.

"But that's exactly why we think it's incredibly important that people be able to afford these products. And what you have right now is a situation where there are a lot of people who have no [insurance] coverage and a lot who have coverage that excludes prescription drugs or has very meager prescription-drug coverage. So the cost of these products hits people very hard." - Mahan said.

A few facts: Due to AARP's last "Rx Watchdog Report," published in August, prices of 195 top brand-name medications increased by 6.6 percent from the spring of 2004 to the spring of 2005 - more than double the 3 percent yearly factor of inflation.

AARP calculates that the average older American, who takes three prescription medications, pays for the drugs about $866 more than five years ago.

When the report was released, Ken Johnson, PhRMA's senior vice president stated that the AARP used "fuzzy math in reaching its flawed conclusions."

Trewhitt said: "Today's pharmaceutical price increases, which are at near decade-low levels, are in line with those of other health-care services, which aren't as cost-effective."

He is sure that the true problem is in the growing groups of uninsured people in America: "Today, about 45 million Americans lack adequate insurance or any insurance. They often pay cash on the barrelhead for medicines at retail pharmacies and they don't have anyone negotiating good discounts on their behalf."

In response, Mahan agreed and at the same time disagreed again: "We certainly do have too many people without coverage - I'm not arguing with him on that one"- said. But she added that health plans cut out prescription-drug coverage accurately because prices have increased very quickly to a high level.

Mahan's group fight for price rollback as well as lobby for some kind of federal controls of the prices as occur in Canada and Europe. Industry representatives try to defend by saying that the controls could strike research and development, but Mahan doesn't believe it.

"We've looked at profits and spending patterns in pharmaceutical companies and what you see consistently is that R&D is well overshadowed by spending on marketing, advertising and administration," she noticed. "It's also well overshadowed by profits."

Price controls in the USA appear to be very distant. According Trewhitt and Mahan people should be careful with shopping and use all the available discounts as well as comparison shopping. In January, for those in age of over 65, the expected Medicare drug benefit is to be kick off.

Both sides agree to a point that a great deal of the highly popular, expensive prescription drugs are able to improve people's lives.

Mahan said: "I spend a lot of my time at my work trying to get policy changes that would help people access affordable drugs. If I didn't think the drugs were good and worth it, I'd be doing something else."

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