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Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

nytimes.com

11–20 of 461 posts

Re: Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

#11

Drug creation needs to be nationalized, 100% tax funded all the way from researcher to trials to manufacture, and the drugs sold at cost thereafter. And the pharmaceuticals industry needs to just go away.

Maybe you could pull that off in some country, but not the USA.

Re: Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

#12
When I see "treating a life-threatening disease" and $750 a pill, formerly $14, I think people need long prison sentences to solve that.

If we can put food processors who knowingly ship tainted food in prison in this country for endangering or even killing people, we can certainly imprison people for endangering lives by preventing the reception of medication.

Re: Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

#13
The title changed, which means the Algolia search for previous discussions (click the "past" link in the header) is broken.

This submission is a dupe of (killed, 2 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10250576

and (not killed, many comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10248459

Dupe checking is clearly broken. Most of this page is dupes: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=nytimes.com

Re: Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

#14
Oddly enough, I think the story buries the lede. Near the bottom, refers both to the fact that distribution of the drug very recently became controlled and that Shkreli -- now owner of the drug -- has previously talked about controlled distribution "as a way to thwart generics."

Re: Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

#15

Drug creation needs to be nationalized, 100% tax funded all the way from researcher to trials to manufacture, and the drugs sold at cost thereafter. And the pharmaceuticals industry needs to just go away.

The drugs might end up being cheaper, but there will be much less research for drugs (aka less drugs in the future). Greed is a good motivator.

Re: Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

#16

The surprise voiced in this article is suprising. Now that the NY Times has told me about it, this idea of buying the one company that makes a particular generic drug and then raising the price ridiculously high makes a lot of sense. I wonder if they thought they'd lower the price as sales dropped and were themselves surprised when this didn't happen. I gotta agree with jug5: "Breaking News: America doesn't understan…

It's not that America doesn't understand, it's that when you actually take a step back and look at it, the idea of it is so deplorable it's a harsh reflection of our society's values that it's legal at all.

I'm thinking about ways to elaborate and explain why it's so awful, but I'm imagining it's obvious to you. I'd imagine this story is making its rounds through all the major news outlets because it evokes soul-searching, not because people didn't know it was possible.

Re: Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

#18
post #15

Drug creation needs to be nationalized, 100% tax funded all the way from researcher to trials to manufacture, and the drugs sold at cost thereafter. And the pharmaceuticals industry needs to just go away.

The drugs might end up being cheaper, but there will be much less research for drugs (aka less drugs in the future). Greed is a good motivator.

I'm not much familiar with the system in the US, but I got the impression that the state already subsidises a large amount of the research anyway?

Re: Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

#19

Drug creation needs to be nationalized, 100% tax funded all the way from researcher to trials to manufacture, and the drugs sold at cost thereafter. And the pharmaceuticals industry needs to just go away.

Maybe you could pull that off in some country, but not the USA.

Why wouldn't it work in the USA?

Re: Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

#20
post #13

The title changed, which means the Algolia search for previous discussions (click the "past" link in the header) is broken. This submission is a dupe of (killed, 2 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10250576 and (not killed, many comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10248459 Dupe checking is clearly broken. Most of this page is dupes: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=nytimes.com

He didn't change the title, the article's title actually was changed. Compare page and URL.
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