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

nytimes.com

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

#71

Post by antr »

DanBC wrote: post #37
antr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In the US the government bits of health care out-perform the private bits of health care. One of the reasons the US has good health outcomes for some things like cancer is because of the huge amounts of government spending.

I hope this clarifies my comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10251846

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

#72

Post by ams6110 »

assface wrote: post #52
antr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I've yet to see any one industry that has been nationalised as is performing better (in every sense) than the private sector. The nationalized health care programs seem to be performing better in other countries than ours.

Depends on how you define "better." In any nationalized system with controlled prices, you will have shortages.

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

#73

Post by cmiles74 »

pyre wrote: post #64
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…

So you're saying that "jack up the prices to wring more money out of dying people that don't have any other choice" is a perfectly valid, 100% ethical business decision that every single person on the face of the planet should be able to make without any hesitation? Seems like a specious argument.

I think that it's a perfectly valid solution to the problem of being a business or corporation of making more money. I think it's a mistake to believe that ethics is a big part of that equation and I think history backs me up on that. For sure, I'd like these organizations to be more ethical but I also understand that can often get in the way of their primary goal, which is make more money.

I don't believe it's ethical, but I do believe it's perfectly valid. I'm saying I don't find it surprising and as soon as I read it, it seems almost kind of obvious.

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

#74

Post by pessimizer »

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.

Greed is a good motivator to make up diseases, fake test results, and to use business tactics to jack up the price of ancient drugs by three or four orders of magnitude.

I see those as an adverse outcomes, so I would prefer a different way of funding drug development.

"The Benefits and Savings of Publicly-Funded Clinical Trials of Prescription Drugs"

http://www.cepr.net/publications/reports/the-benefits-and-sa...

"Patent Monopolies and the Costs of Mismarketing Drugs"

http://www.cepr.net/publications/reports/patent-monopolies-a...

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

#75

Post by jcromartie »

rodionos wrote: post #61

As much as my compassionate side is siding with hospitals and patients, the company should be allowed to charge any price it considers reasonable for its product. Also I didn't like the inconspicuous ad hominem attacks on the supply-side players. The side-effect is that it leads the reader away from a subtle observation that the fair market controls to prevent these policies are simply missing and regulators have don…

> any price it considers reasonable

What if the "reasonable" price is set by a delusional sociopath?

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

#76

Post by pessimizer »

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 Benefits and Savings of Publicly-Funded Clinical Trials of Prescription Drugs"

http://www.cepr.net/publications/reports/the-benefits-and-sa...

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

#77

Post by cmiles74 »

DanBC wrote: post #21
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.

I would agree with you in terms of the general population. In this case, however, we're talking about a "former hedge fund manager".

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

#79

Post by trymas »

It's so range inducing it's horrible. The guy is pure evil.

Though, my question is, what does it mean "to acquire/own/have the rights to the drug"? If the drug is 62 years old, knowledge about it should be in public domain and why can't some other company start making it?

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

#80

Post by DanBC »

ams6110 wrote: post #72
assface wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've yet to see any one industry that has been nationalised as is performing better (in every sense) than the private sector. The nationalized health care programs seem to be performing better in other countries than ours.

Depends on how you define "better." In any nationalized system with controlled prices, you will have shortages.

The US has plenty of shortages of meds, but in that system the shortages are blamed on the intended recipient. "You didn't have a good enough job; you didn't have good enough insurance".
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