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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

#411

Post by ken47 »

JDiculous wrote: post #317
ken47 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From an economic and policy perspective, unfortunately, Turing is doing everything right. This is an economically misguided point of view. Free market decision-making can only be argued to be optimal in a free market system, which pharma is not, a distinction which the decision-makers certainly were intelligent enough to understand. Free market mechanisms either need to be put in place, or we need to stop allowing it…

The problem is that the economic system that not only allows this, but incentivizes it. Witch hunting isn't going to fix a fundamentally broken economic system. We need to admit that our system is not optimal, and fix it. Rational people are always going to act in their own best self-interest.

That brokenness is entirely dependent on what you mean by self-interest. I recommend reading up on the concept of "enlightened self-interest," which was popular during Adam Smith's era, and theoretically leads to far less "broken" systemic outcomes.

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

#412

Post by closetnerd »

afr6262 wrote: post #410
bedhead wrote: post #55

I am a fund manager and I have followed Martin Shkreli since his prior company, Retrophin, went public about two years ago. Simply put, Martin is a sociopathic criminal with a well-established, and consistent track record of deceit, recklessness, failure, and just plain old stupidity. But he is also hyper-aggressive. He is currently living in Switzerland, and it's my understanding that he fled the country in order to…

Shkreli seems like a scumbag but how is that different from what Valeant, Mallinckrodt and others do. Buy another pharma company and jack up the price. http://www.wsj.com/articles/pharmaceutical-companies-buy-riv... I'm honestly looking for an answer here. Maybe there is a good reason Valeant can and should be able to get away with it.

Short answer is they're not different. He likely has a brash personality making him an easy target.

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

#413

Post by toomuchtodo »

harryh wrote: post #405
toomuchtodo wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And who is out there willing to spend billions developing new drugs while giving them away for free? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_(global_health_organizati... http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ > The patent system certainly isn't stopping those people. The patent system does prevent people from getting at lower costs. I continue to have hope for countries that invalidate drug patents, and for further methods to…

Has either PATH or the Gates Foundation ever developed a drug? Honest question here, I just don't know?

http://www.path.org/about/measuring-impact.php

It's from 2011, a quick search didn't find a more current report:

"After collecting data on indicators, PATH project teams use an online tool to enter results, which are aggregated by phase of development. A team developing a malaria vaccine, for example, reports completion of clinical trials with children in Mozambique. This result is aggregated with data from other teams conducting clinical trials of other products.

Top-level 2011 findings include the following:

PATH had 199 technologies and products in our development pipeline in 2011. Fifty-one products moved forward one or more phases in the pipeline. Six products were registered, three were licensed, and two were prequalified by the World Health Organization.

PATH had activities in 68 developing countries. We trained more than 91,000 people in 2011 and worked on 101 policies, strategies, and guidelines. At the global level, eight guidelines and one strategy supported by PATH’s work were approved by global decision-making bodies. At the national level, 36 policies, strategies, and guidelines supported by PATH’s work were approved. More than 74.5 million people benefitted from PATH’s work. More than $100 million in funding was mobilized to scale up PATH-championed interventions. PATH was awarded 83 grants valued at nearly $160 million."

Regarding the Gates Foundation, they don't directly research drugs, but contribute heavily to those working on polio, malaria, and HIV.

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

#414

Post by cowsandmilk »

FireBeyond wrote: post #388
cowsandmilk wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a very biased view of the situation. Pharma companies try to put the best face on data to get a drug approved. Analysts try to approach the data in an impartial way. If an analyst looks at the data and sees issues, it makes sense both ethically and financially to push for the drug not to be approved. Ethically, if the drug doesn't work as advertised, it is better that it is not sold as a cure. Informing the F…

Given the multiple issues Martin has faced over the years, I think it's fair to say that 'impartiality' is the least of his motivations. "If an analyst looks at the data and sees issues" - what are they? A stockbroker, or pharmaceutical scientist? How many are both? It would only make financial sense to push for the drug not to be approved -if- you had a position that made a gain from that, but let's not pretend like…

I don't care about Shkreli, I care about whether the practice is ethical.

There are plenty of pharma analysts who have used the same techniques who have medical degrees, have worked on clinical trial design at pharma companies, etc. They often aren't the names you see when pharma complains about people shorting their stocks because pharma only wants to point at the head of the hedge fund who has no life sciences expertise. They don't want the public to know about the dozen experts the hedge fund manager is paying to analyze the filings in order to challenge the filings and decide whether to short the stock.

No one complains if your analysis shows the molecule is great and you go long, it only becomes evil if your analysis shows the molecule is crap.

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

#415

Post by nepstein »

lxe wrote: post #377
nepstein wrote: post #376

UPDATE: the price increase has been rescinded http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/business/big-price-increas...

This is a different drug. Looks like this isn't a unique case. Sounds like the entire pharmaceuticals market is not a pleasant place.

Ah, should've given it a closer look! Apologies for the mixup.

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

#416

Post by [deleted] »

bedhead wrote: post #55

I am a fund manager and I have followed Martin Shkreli since his prior company, Retrophin, went public about two years ago. Simply put, Martin is a sociopathic criminal with a well-established, and consistent track record of deceit, recklessness, failure, and just plain old stupidity. But he is also hyper-aggressive. He is currently living in Switzerland, and it's my understanding that he fled the country in order to…

[deleted]

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

#417

Post by Natsu »

fudgy73 wrote: post #330
rev_bird wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was less surprised by the vandalism than I was by how tame it was.

Looks like it's gotten a bit worse: http://imgur.com/a/7X0Wt

The sad thing is that it made my try to remember the biography of living persons rules to figure out whether any of those quotes could be kept if they were noteworthy and properly sourced.

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

#418

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

elliottcarlson wrote: post #123
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We put a food processor who knowingly shipped tainted food in prison?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/20/us/peanut-butter-salmonella-tr...

At least it isn't unprecedented any more.

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

#419

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

darkr wrote: post #171
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true? Because when you combine that with the amount that US citizens spend on private insurance and other self-funded health care expenses, wow.

Edit: Actually I found some OECD stats[4] on that suggest that _public_ spend in the U.S is actually higher than the _public_ spend in Canada/UK/France (though for the latter two they are almost in margin of error territory) so the parent is correct. Original post: No, it's not true. In 2010-2011[1], US had the highest expenditure in the world on health per capita according to WHO and OECD, but those stats are combin…

re: edit: wow confirmed. That's amazing, and pretty embarrassing.
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