Government Action Causes Preemie Birth Preventive Drug to Go from $10 to $1500- Further Evidence that Evil Insurance Companies Must be Nationalized?

From the Associated Press:

The price of preventing preterm labor is about to go through the roof. A drug for high-risk pregnant women has cost about $10 to $20 per injection. Next week, the price shoots up to $1,500 a dose, meaning the total cost during a pregnancy could be as much as $30,000.

That's because the drug, a form of progesterone given as a weekly shot, has been made cheaply for years, mixed in special pharmacies that custom-compound treatments that are not federally approved. But recently, KV Pharmaceutical of suburban St.Louis won government approval to exclusively sell the drug, known as Makena (Mah-KEE'-Nah)....

...Doctors say the price hike may deter low-income women from getting the drug, leading to more premature births. And it will certainly be a huge financial burden for health insurance companies and government programs that have been paying for it....

....Ther-Rx and its parent company became involved about three years ago and acquired rights to the drug from a Massachusetts company named Hologic Inc., said Divis, who is also Ther-Rx's president.

To get FDA approval, the company is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in additional research, including an international study involving 1,700 women, Divis said. The FDA last month signed off and gave Makena orphan drug status. That designation ensures Ther-Rx will be the sole source of the drug for seven years....

...Some doctors said they were happy getting the cheaper version from compounding pharmacies, and Aetna's Armstrong said she was unaware of any quality concerns. Still, doctors will use the Ther-Rx brand, in part because of legal worries. Not that they have a choice: Last month, KV sent cease-and-desist letters to compounding pharmacies, telling them they could face FDA enforcement actions if they kept making the drug....

Summary- There was a drug out there that helped prevent babies from being born prematurely and having all of the associated health problems with this. The drug was cheap and was frequently freely chosen by patients and doctors. Several years ago a clever company realized that it could use the power of the government power to make money, so bought up the rights to this drug and then lobbied the FDA hard to give them exclusive rights to selling the drug. The FDA did so, the company jacked up the price, and threatened government thugs on anyone that didn't buy from their government regulated monopoly. Children, parents, insurance companies, doctors, and society all suffered ONCE THE GOVERNMENT GOT INVOLVED. And now Obama and the Democrats in Congress want the government to be involved in every single decision regarding you and your health.

UPDATE: I love http://www.opensecrets.org/. A quick search on donor lookup of employer 'KV Pharmaceutical' shows that FRANKLIN, JOSHUA (KV PHARMACEUTICAL/DIRECTOR OF MARKETING) donated $300 Clinton, Hillary (D) and HATTEN, SANDRA (KV PHARMACEUTICAL/VICE PRESIDENT OF ??? donated $300 Obama, Barack (D). All other entries are from 2000 or previous and not as relevant. Again, this does not demonstrate that those donate to Democrats always get an executive agency a contract to market something exclusively that was on the market for many years they just recently acquired, but it does make you wonder why those who are getting special benefits in our government are almost always donating money to Democrats and rarely to Republicans.