Drug Goes from $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by DanBC » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:31 PM UTC

cmiles74 wrote: post #10

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 surprising because most people are not pathological arseholes and would find this kind of shenanigans repugnant.

This company and this example of abusive trading will single-handedly drive further regulation of the pharmaceutical industry.

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

#22

Post by bildung » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:31 PM UTC

brixon wrote: post #15

JulianMorrison wrote: post #9

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.

> 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

The article pointed out that the drug in question is over 60 years old. I doubt the original creators thought about profitability at a time frame where they are most probably dead anyway.

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

#23

Post by DanBC » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:32 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #20

DanBC wrote: 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.

Ah, thanks. Sorry.

I edited my post.

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

#24

Post by ZenoArrow » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:32 PM UTC

brixon wrote: post #15

JulianMorrison wrote: post #9

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.

Keeping voters in good health is a good motivator too.

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

#25

Post by PythonicAlpha » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:32 PM UTC

It is about time to understand, that making business and money must not be the only standard valid in society, but also some moral standards must apply.

If not, humanity as a whole will fail. What will be left of humanity: Some trillionaires hiding behind barb wire finding out, that living without the rest of the people is even worse than having only millions.

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

#26

Post by antr » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:32 PM UTC

JulianMorrison wrote: post #9

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.

I want my goverment helping people avoid health issues, rather than subsidising costs that could have been prevented. I've yet to see any one industry that has been nationalised and is performing better (in every sense) than the private sector.

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

#27

Post by tammer » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:33 PM UTC

I used to work for a generics manufacturer, and indeed this was their MO. Seek out old drugs that sill have a very viable market but are under the radar of the big guys, undersell until they're the only supplier left, then jack up the price when patients have no choice. It's despicable and seems inevitable with the current regulation model.

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

#28

Post by jakobegger » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:33 PM UTC

It should be pretty obvious by now that the pharma sector is completely out of control. Again and again I read about the rising cost of healthcare, how we can't afford to support an aging society, and now even "solved" problems are used to squeeze even more profits from those who can afford the least.

And I'm not talking about the US, this is a world wide problem. Instead of making international treaties that make enforcing medical patents even easier, we should be talking about making the medicines we have more accessible. I don't want to live in a world were only a fortunate elite has access to modern treatments, but it looks like that's the way we're going.

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

#29

Post by arbitrage » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:35 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #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.

It's disheartening, but I think the logic in your first example is that the manufacturer did not give the consumer a choice; in the second, the consumer can choose not to pay, and die instead.

It's a horrid way to think about it, and it's a horrid ethical system that gets developed when it all comes down to money.

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

#30

Post by mrbig4545 » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 12:38 PM UTC

brixon wrote: post #15

JulianMorrison wrote: post #9

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.

most drug research is done in university anyway, and in most countries government funded. big pharma does the part after that in order to get it to market. trials and tweaks etc