really just to make you feel better drugs are all we have her doctor prescribed revlimid an oral chemotherapy drug manufactured by the u.s. biotechnology company celgene and that's just and it has no generic in the united states. revel may quite simply is the only form of treatment available for me for my cancer. revlimid has kept checking cancer stable for the last 4 years. but the bills to pay for it and her overall health care have shattered her financial stability the 1st $1.00 i got was january 6th 2017 and the total member responsibility right here is 11140 $8.14 and then i got the 2nd bill january 30th and that one was 412039 dollars and 89 cents total member responsibility and here's a real weeks later 3 weeks later here we are on their bill for $12.00 ours is your responsibility yeah this must been terrifying though while you're fighting. cancer

in a period of 6 weeks you get 3 bills for the one drug that may extend your life and it's looking like it's going to be you know over $12000.00 a month. i can honestly tell you that when i was diagnosed you know there are some tears there but i cried hard more when these bills came along i've spent so much more emotional energy on finding ways to fund my treatment than i ever have my cancer. at 1st jackie's insurance didn't cover revlimid has been saying well we can do this i'll sell my truck you know what that old bell give us the money but i'm going to be on this indefinitely this is not a solution we need a longer term solution and we're not going to be paying this out of pocket it will be bankrupt before you know it and then what. so jackie spent up to 50 hours a week at times cobbling together a plan to bring down her cost this is my part d.

this is my supplemental policy these are different and you know when i was involved in marketplace insurance if you want to live in this is the amount of paperwork required oh yeah it's pretty complicated i've been lucky i've been ahead of the game i've been able to navigate pretty effectively through the system others are not. just trying to wrap my head around how you can afford this drug you have multiple insurance plans you're on medicare you have found a loophole in the new state law that's helped you you're in disability and you wanted to scale program with all of that what do you how much that cost you or you're still in any given year it's anywhere from $15.00 to $22000.00 for me out of pocket 15 to 22000 a year that's after insurance and that's out of your that's out of your pocket out of my pocket. one of the most effective ways to

bring down the cost of medicine for people like jackie is to have more affordable generic options on the market. but experts say that major pharmaceutical companies use a complex web of strategies to block generic competition. so they can maintain control of the truck's price and protect a monopoly. a company that has a monopoly goes to its potential competition and says hey we've got a better deal for both of us we'll give you x. dollars to just keep your product off the market. so the patent holder benefits from getting preserve their monopoly and their monopoly pricing. the generic firm benefits by getting an insured payday and the public loses because we don't get more affordable medicine through competition this strategy the drug companies use to keep competitors out of the market is legal. and it's not the only one. the way the farms of companies today use the patent system they stack of hundreds of

patents on a particular drug such that they basically get as low as they can out of that protective protection in order to prevent competition coming in and we all know what's competition comes in prices drop. how does the patent process affect a drug like rabbit i think there are some 107 patents on this drug for passing up occasions in the 1st 70 of the granted and that prevents anybody from coming in if i'm a generic competitor i have to mitigate my way through all these to get into the marketplace and so delays so instead of going to the market maybe you know next you have to wait 23 is because of the way the regulatory system works in terms of you have to end the litigation for you can get approval fusion eric. industry experts told us that strategies like these have slipped back to her competition of prescription drugs by years. celgene which mean you actually read limited did not respond to a list of questions we sent them. imo for making a healthy profit and protecting intellectual property for

a period of time but they've abused that it doesn't matter how many great new innovations there are and great new drugs there are that are going to keep people alive he can for them drugs don't work if if we can afford to take and. this is a total rip off. and we are ending. and we will work every day to ensure all americans have access to the quality affordable medication they need and they deserve and we will not rest until this. of unfair pricing is a total victory for the usa. president promised to make the high cost of prescription drugs a top policy priority. he's talked about bringing down the cost of some drugs in line with their prices in other countries. but experts we spoke to say his

proposals don't address the root of the problem. the drug companies monopoly power which according to a survey by more than 70 percent of americans want to rein it. in you look at the polling with the people you say there's political will at the electorate level for radical change on this issue. but there's a disconnect between the political will of the people and that actual political will and congress. lies or disconnect their money. the industry has extreme lobbying power about 3 lobbyists for every member of congress and spends a great deal on elections on supporting candidates in the united states. when the pharmaceutical industry says we need more incentives to conduct a certain line of research and no one wants to stand in the way of that so the legal climate continues to favor the industry more and more which means they can

abuse all of us in the form of price with unchecked power. federal filings show that pharma the group that represents most of the us is largest drug manufacturers spend about $27.00 and a half $1000000.00 on lobbying in 2018. when they're asked about the high cost of prescription drugs the pharmaceutical industry often makes this argument. lowering drug prices which type of research and development that impact the creation of new lifesaving drugs this is obviously extremely important to sustain a wave of innovation that patrick o'brian who works for a pro-business lobbying group is sympathetic to this few patients on this is in new ways i've talked to so many people in this industry that says there's an entire set of strategies for extending patents the drug companies are using well this is all there you see this is all part of a. process of attempting to stigmatize an industry that.

has delivered tremendous value to people everywhere and it is unfortunate it is part of a bigger at those the state can hold that big business is bad but you have americans flooding over the border to buy prescription drugs in canada but how do you explain that to wrap your head around that say yep this is this is a system that we were well you could say that other countries are getting away with murder and i wouldn't disagree they are not paying their fair share for the overall system the political situation of those countries has created a situation where the manufacturers have no pricing power this is them that we have works pretty well to create the right incentive for investment and also to allow following innovation and if you know the high prices on the front under part of that well that's part of the process in a free market a producer has the right to set their price. buyers can take it or leave it but if

there's only one drug to treat your illness and that company is the only one that makes and sells that drug there is no market of choice and you have to take that drugs or die i don't think it's any given company's fault that there's a lack of competition you know the fact is that if someone else can figure out a better way to do that they could knock. medicine off the market and notes i'm wrong fact we see that all the time. the only counterargument you can make is that prices should be high in order to fund innovation but there's no limit to that argument i mean under under that logic companies can literally charge anything they want and it would always be a good deal for the public which is what's happening and it's not a good deal for the public. medical innovation is expensive and we need to pay for it that doesn't mean prices should be whatever the companies want them to be which is the current regime. we made multiple interview requests to the top 3 insulin

manufacturers see if we get a referee literally on the phone. but none of them agreed to an interview. to get someone from to go door to speak on camera. all right so would. you know if you've seen a fee responded with a statement explaining the various discount programs they offer to patients and encourage them to call the company's hotline for information. we decided to approach someone else who might know more. secretary aleksei czar has been the face of the trump administration's truck price policy. but he has another connection to the us. americans want in these surveys all of the home here say he was a top executive at insulin manufacturer eli lilly and during this time there the price of the company's best selling insulin more than doubled. we wanted to ask him why secretaries are. which tells us one question about description prices insulin

doubled when you were president that he will usa. why did you do something about it been. one of the. sectors i know you can hear me i know that you when you were president it will usa insulin prices doubled why didn't you do something about it the. president from said pharmacy companies are getting away with murder was he referring to companies like you would present itself. it's corruption and it's legal companies are free to do most of what we're talking about here today they can pay to delay their competition they can extend monopolies for years or even decades they can spike prices by 5000 percent if they want to making medicines affordable is not a question of cracking down on illegal behavior it's

a question of cracking down on legalized corruption in the system that we have created. alice death is not an isolated situation since alec has passed away i have been in contact with at least 10 other families who had recently lost one of their loved ones from the same thing and ironically half of them are 26 year old. firm is it a company is need to lower the list prices people are dying and the only way to stop that from happening is to make the products affordable. so are really fixed so just like jackie is now 4 years into a 5 year prognosis with the help of revlimid. but to make it this far she and her husband it had to train their savings and some of the money that set aside for retirement. they're now selling pieces of their life on line like furniture and

dishes they were given for their wedding. my husband and i both have been incredibly careful people. very conservative with our money. we were the kind of people that whatever the maximum was that we could put away for retirement we did all that interest posed to do we did all the things we're supposed to do absolutely you know we generally had anywhere from $40.00 to $50000.00 in the bank just as a safety net that's gone. that's long gone. we're not going to be that 75 year old couple with the 50 year anniversary parties it's not really in the cards for us and we've dealt with that but i don't want to leave him completely broken and completely bankrupt at the same time and. unless something changes. that's likely to be the case. unless i decide. to no longer seek treatment you're literally saying that you have

to make a financial trail i will on how long to live i will there will be a tipping point and i will have to make a decision as to when to stop treatment and choose to die. so that i can leave my husband with enough so that he can he can make it through the next you know 30 years of his life that's what's at stake for me. j.-o. you are at the mercy of the state but in the land of the free shareholders have a stake it is this profit motive that continues to interfere with adequate health care being provided to people who are detained and incarcerated across the country salt lines investigates how the outsourcing of health care in american jails is impacting the lives and deaths of those behind bars sick inside on al-jazeera.

the multitudes the magnet for tourists from around the globe but behind the peach risk landscape young men are leaving to die with groups in syria when i went east investigates on al jazeera. and this is different it's whether someone thing for some of his favorites doesn't mean i think it's how you proceed official and if it is a settlement doing it qantas 5 innings it's a story in fire out. a policy imposed decades ago.

goods and boards changing demographics across asia with far reaching consequences are pretty leading poor of socially disadvantaged young men so you have the system where people at every level will be get being given body money to agree to star as a ship or buddy to get other people to move. al-jazeera examines the politics of population control. at least 17 people are killed by a car bomb that may have hysteria tekkie border. crowd and i missed the attain this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up anti-government protesters blocked roads leading to iraq's main port raising

concerns that food supplies could be disrupted. tear gas canisters a fire as the 22nd weekend of protests in hong kong descends into chaos. and britain's government halts all fracking but for how long. a car bomb has exploded at a market in the syrian town of not far from the border at least that 10 people have been killed more than 20 injured as one of 2 major towns that have been the initial focus of chuckie's cross border operation to capture territory from kodesh y.p. chief and it regards as terrorists how correspondent has moved from shania near the tekkie syrian border. the car was packed with explosives and placed in a crowded market of this explains the growing number of casualties the turkish

military blamed the white b.g. for the attack and the. head back saying that this is a failure of the turkish government saying that these are lie the said they failed to provide security for people in. and this is the latest blast in a series of attacks that took place in different cities on the border with turkey. 3 in tel aviv and also it is clearly an indication of the enormous challenge that faces turkey as its tossed the joint patrols in the saves to ensure that the city of fighters have completely weakly treated it's also a huge challenge for the so your opposition which finds itself with a new territory from. and which is now under obligation to secure it and the potential for confrontation between the turkish army and the f.d.a.

is bigger than any time before now one passenger has been killed and at least 90 others injured during protests in baghdad on friday people took to the streets in the capital than any day since the downfall of saddam hussein they are being driven by anger at corruption lack of public services and unemployment 250 people have been killed in the past month protests have also started up again and baz euro and attaching a name has. now in the city of basra it looks like their protests are blocking operations of critical utilities local sources are telling us that protesters and security forces in basra have been fighting in front of the room the haas airport since last evening there was a city in there and what we understand protesters had been blocking the entrance and hold the operations for them to the port for about 6 days security forces came

in cleared the sit in and that's when local sources told us about 100 people were injured some of them seriously protesters remain there carrying signs that say iran out of iraq you affairs another one a sign being seen is. the iraqi government made by iran protesters are upset they say that the ports revenue is being diverted away from their city and leaving them with poor basic services hundreds of people have gathered in the gaza strip for the funeral of a palestinian man killed by an israeli airstrike. died in the early hours of saturday morning after israel launched strikes into gaza the military said it was targeting science and to hamas the group that controls the territory israel says 10 rockets were fired from gaza late on friday night while yemeni protest as i back out and tie is the 2nd largest city demanding that government figures suspected of

embezzlement be sacked the war has pushed millions to the brink of famine and demonstrators say that's being made west by corruption a saudi led military coalition intervened in 2015 to support the yemeni government's fight against the rebels triggering what the u.n. describes as the wild west humanitarian disaster. meanwhile anti-government demonstrations in lebanon are calming down on friday banks opened for the 1st time in 2 weeks but there are some restrictions on foreign currency transactions schools and universities also reopen to their doors while the commander in chief of a wrong influential revolutionary guards has made a veiled reference to those protests in lebanon major general hussein salami seemed to hit back at criticism over iran's influence in iraq and lebanon you know if. iran does not have an eye on any country we will extend our power to the point that if any enemy wants to use a location to attack iran we will destroy that location so our reaches beyond our

own borders meaning that we will extend our area of power to anywhere our enemy intends to plot against us we have achieved this power. our correspondent also jabari is in terror on with more details. major general hussein is how i mean rated iran's position that they will continue to defend their interests in the middle east he said that iran will not shy away from protecting its interests in the neighboring countries hinting at the fact that the events that have been unfolding in syria lebanon and iraq is something that has been instigated by foreign powers mainly to united states and iran will not stand for it that they will defend their own interests in those countries the major general also announced that iran has now got more than enough missiles in its stockpile to defend its interests anywhere in the region and that they are ready and able and willing to defend themselves the events that he was speaking at is the upcoming 40th anniversary of the u.s.

embassy takeover by university students on november 4th 1979 which led to the relations between iran and the united states being severed at that point the iranians have now unveiled a series of new murals outside this building which is now a museum the murals really reiterate the position and the relationship between iran and the united states and how strained they have been over the past few years. well police in hong kong have used tear gas and water cannon to disperse thousands of people rallying there for the 22nd straight weekend windows was smashed as an office of china's shin one news agency prominent activist joshua wong had called for 100000 people to march on saturday the protests began over proposed changes to extradition rules that have since been scrapped but they've grown into a movement against what's being seen as beijing's growing influence to the pollen has more from the territory well this is exactly what the police did not want they

cleared this area hours ago from protesters using tear gas and pepper say spray sending protesters dispersing their did up in the heart of hong kong's financial district setting up barricades there once again secure over the streets since then police have again fired tear gas arrested people but the protesters have come back here this has been the scene of most weekends this is how the protesters have been operating with the philosophy reward for now this week protesters are angry about the fact that they say hong kong only democratic process the legislative council elections has been interfered with with big dude from beijing they say that this qualification of democracy icon joshua wong from the legislative council elections is politically motivated and shows that hong kong's autonomy and freedom is being squeezed while protests too and pakistan where tens of thousands of people

according on prime minister imran khan to resign people involved in the so-called freedom march have gathered in islamabad after arriving from towns across the country the group led by a conservative opposition party is angry over pakistan's faltering economy and iran consummate a ship they've given him for 2 days to step down but he has refused to has the latest from the capital. i did a 2nd day of protests most of the protesters are living on their own. dead making their own bread and whatever they can find in order to get by most of these people are poor prepared who have traveled from all over pakistan from baluchistan province from the khyber book to who are from the punjab and even in care of then progress and most of these people say that they will stand behind their leader modify the ramón and are waiting for him because they have come here and that they are determined to stay there for months if they're made to do soft progress on it

going through an important part critical of political crisis the political instability is going to bite hard into the economy but more to prepare like growth buggers than are fed up with the economic crisis they want clean drinking water they're worn jobs and they're warned their children to be able to get a proper education by days did work their fine escort up for leadership which has been taking money from the before this and spending it on themselves in exile or get a petition yeah but again. it's been almost one year since imran khan took over but he's failed to deliver the prices of basic commodities have skyrocketed and it's hard to live we want change and we want to now suddenly downloads but you imran khan has not only been protected by the tea party but also by all opposition parties one he came through the elections and 2 he didn't fulfill the promise he

made that he will provide jobs houses and improve the living standard applause instead he made people jobless and homeless we will stay here until he resigns even if he has to stay for months. the next 24 to 48 dodd will be critical of the leader of the broader role on a 400 m. on carriage able to make a proper noun. after that deadline. the government of emraan khan had her big nor dared their strong recorded. government and a miscalculation on their part. major crisis. whether is next but still ahead hitting back at the impeachment process the us president tends. at a campaign rally. and indigenous communities in colombia become targets after taking a stand against the drug trade. how

low the winter chill went through eastern europe threats of cross turkey less than stay behind and that's the end of the frontal system is not particularly cold now it's not ripping anymore snow has been a bit in georgia but i think john in this part of iran is going to be running the cold air was tucked a long way north it'll keep going eastwards give the western side of the tibetan plateau of the himalayan plateau some snow otherwise which will be about fine weather and still sunshine for the most part noisy particularly cold is 30 in baghdad is still $22.00 and aleppo and 17 in ankara no cloud in the sky come monday has been a brief change in the weather the humidity is gone from the gulf states particularly in qatar was next and have his near 30 than 35 for the most part but it's only a subtle change in the wind direction determines it all this normally changes to an easterly this is.