AOC take CEO to task over high drug cost

adroit · 2019-05-17T12:52:48.929Z

zantax:

Have to love liberals, patents for medicine are evil and should be done away with, must protect intellectual property of Hollywood.

Well, no one died for not being able to afford Cardi B. People are dying because they can’t afford their insulin. That was invented a century ago. Because for-profit pharmas have been hiking up the price at over double the rate of inflation for no other reason than because they can.

thinkingman · 2019-05-17T13:04:32.969Z

zantax:

Can’t say I approve of using children in that manner. Those aren’t her opinions or words, she is reading mommy or daddy’s script.

she seems to be having fun with it as though she gets it. i dont see any signs of coercion.

some kids are astute like this

toreyj01 · 2019-05-17T13:06:04.839Z

Generics are seeing the biggest spikes in costs, especially specialized ones. So that argument is not valid.

Much research is done via Universities and Government funded research, some funded from other countries. Pharma companies buy rights to these drugs but don’t necessarily do the initial research, merely human testing. You’re basically saying that only the US develops new drugs but that isn’t so, otherwise why would we pay more for a drug that was developed and funded by a foreign corporation?

We pay more because our system is broken and Pharma takes advantage of that.

Candyman · 2019-05-17T13:09:59.836Z

If someone doesn’t want to pay thousands of dollars for meds then they shouldn’t get sick, amirite Cons?

Samson_Corwell · 2019-05-17T13:17:06.674Z

zantax:

Have to love liberals, patents for medicine are evil and should be done away with, must protect intellectual property of Hollywood.

I’m also of the belief that DRM should be illegal and Hollywood loves DRM.

DMK · 2019-05-17T13:27:45.978Z

The topic isn’t about other countries. Quite frankly, I don’t know much about what other countries do in this regard. It may be much less expensive for them to bring a drug to market if they can bypass a lot of what the FDA requires in this country. I also don’t know if other countries allow for lawsuits against the manufacturer of the drugs to the extent we see here in the United States. There are a lot of variables at play in what ultimately becomes the “cost” of the drug.

However, I do know that if a private industry, they have to make a profit which is then reinvested in the next drug that shows potential.

Whether one likes the profit they make or not , it is the way our system is set up.

toreyj01 · 2019-05-17T13:40:14.407Z

If you look at the VA, they negotiate with Pharma and pay 40% less than what Medicare pays for the same exact drug. We are simply paying more than we should while other countries with socialized health care systems set a price for a drug, take it or leave it.

Despite the fact that we use less drugs than most Euro countries and more generics we pay at least double what any of them pay. Something is broken here.

Eagle-Keeper · 2019-05-17T15:40:04.852Z

DMK:

It can cost billions just to bring one viable drug to market.

As a side note, I used to be in pharmaceutical sales. We were to launch a super potent antibiotic. Mostly a Hail Mary type antibiotic. If you were on death’s door this would possibly do the trick. It went through all of the approvals. Big meetings to launch. It got pulled at the last minute.

If you want R&D, you can’t do it on $8.00 per Rx with the limited time on patents.

There is only a short time span for the manufacturer of that drug to recoup costs and fund the next drug in line before it goes generic.

Policy & Medicine

A Tough Road: Cost To Develop One New Drug Is $2.6 Billion; Approval Rate for…

Developing a new prescription medicine that gains marketing approval is estimated to cost drugmakers $2.6 billion according to a recent study by Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development and published in the Journal of Health Economics. This is

If someday we do go to some form of a “medicare for all” system it’s quite possible that R&D budgets will get drastically slashed by many biotech and pharmaceutical companies. No one is going to take such big risks with little to no profit to be made.

Eagle-Keeper · 2019-05-17T15:45:00.233Z

adroit:

Sounds like a great market to nationalize. If an entire industry can’t survive without government enforce monopoly, rather than the free market, perhaps it shouldn’t reap any profits?

The “monopoly” for all chemical companies, and much R&D type companies is in the form of a patent. The “free market” aspect is who gets there first.

Eagle-Keeper · 2019-05-17T15:52:58.419Z

Samson_Corwell:

Patents are an unnatural government-created privilege.

Are you for eliminating patent protections?

Dissident_Aggressor · 2019-05-17T16:38:02.416Z

adroit:

I’d absolutely love for us to create the NASA equivalent of pharmaceuticals.

I’d love for the government to create the NASA equivalent of absolutely everything. I’m sure the competency level of these departments would be stunning, their efficiency level would be unparalleled and the cost to the taxpayers would be minimal. Plus we’d never have to worry about those evil people making profits ever again.

SeaManatee · 2019-05-17T16:49:48.069Z

thinkingman:

huh. a thread about AOC and pharm, and all everyone talks about is trump…

thinkingman:

it’s good to see AOC following trump’s lead here finally:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/09/trump-administration-hopes-listing-drug-prices-on-tv-ad-will-lower-cost.html

Hmmmmmmmm. It’s a puzzler alright.

toreyj01 · 2019-05-17T18:00:11.741Z

Well struck!

highroller · 2019-05-17T19:04:00.205Z

I don’t see anything wrong with having a public discussion about drug prices.

AOC: Why are your drug prices so high?

Company: Because we can!

If you want lower prices, change the law so it encourages lower prices. I seem to remember before the election the TPP agreement exported our patent protect on drugs to the other countries, so Trump pulling us out actually helped those people avoid sky-high drug prices.

thinkingman · 2019-05-17T20:37:29.730Z

SeaManatee:

thinkingman:

huh. a thread about AOC and pharm, and all everyone talks about is trump…

thinkingman:

it’s good to see AOC following trump’s lead here finally:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/09/trump-administration-hopes-listing-drug-prices-on-tv-ad-will-lower-cost.html

Hmmmmmmmm. It’s a puzzler alright.

oh dear i seem to have contradicted myself…

■■■■■■■■■ i referenced trump in relation to the twinklie eyed idiot as he was addressing the same issue

nice try

markdido · 2019-05-17T22:10:23.338Z

kingarthur65:

Dissident_Aggressor:

The thread title seems to imply ole AOC had the upper hand, but based on the exchange in the OP, it wasn’t that way at all. First, she doesn’t understand the difference between revenue and profit and even if she does, she got it wrong and was corrected. Second, she didn’t get the price right and of course fell on the high side. Again, she was corrected. Then she announces that she doesn’t know how patents work, or if she does, she couldn’t work out that explained the difference in price between here and Australia.

Pretty poor showing, actually.

Good post. Now can you do a similar break down on Trump’s statements on tariffs?

Srart a thread on that champ and quit trying to derail this one.

zantax · 2019-05-18T12:00:16.242Z

adroit:

Well, no one died for not being able to afford Cardi B. People are dying because they can’t afford their insulin. That was invented a century ago. Because for-profit pharmas have been hiking up the price at over double the rate of inflation for no other reason than because they can.

The insulin of today is not the same as the insulin of a century ago. And the main reason an older out of patent generic isn’t on the market is because of the cost of shipping and handling insulin. Even a generic would be relatively expensive for that reason.

7ranz · 2019-05-18T14:07:07.666Z

thinkingman:

sounds like AOC learned just a little more about how economics works while trying to attack someone over their profits, sticking her foot in her big petulant mouth once again

As a student of economics I understand that it makes perfect sense that taking a drug that reduces the risk of HIV should cost $8 dollars in AUS and $1,500 in the U.S.

Thats just how economics works. There’s no reason for anything. That’s just science.

7ranz · 2019-05-18T14:11:44.521Z

[Zizek voice] this spit take is pure ideology [end Zizek voice]

Samson_Corwell · 2019-05-18T14:55:05.349Z

7ranz:

thinkingman:

sounds like AOC learned just a little more about how economics works while trying to attack someone over their profits, sticking her foot in her big petulant mouth once again

As a student of economics I understand that it makes perfect sense that taking a drug that reduces the risk of HIV should cost $8 dollars in AUS and $1,500 in the U.S.

Thats just how economics works. There’s no reason for anything. That’s just science.

Appeals to economics are poorly disguised value judgments.