How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India • Hacker News Board

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#11

Post by HillRat » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:51 AM UTC

surrealvortex wrote: post #8

I'm conflicted about this article. On the one hand, the pharmaceutical companies gouging ordinary Americans is abominable. Doing something to circumvent their greed is something to support. On the other hand, if enough people exploit loopholes like this, and the pharma company actually felt a significant drain in revenue, they may decide not to license the manufacture of these drugs in India at lower prices. If $84,0…

Compulsory licensing under TRIPS means that India can allow manufacturing without running afoul of international trade law, though if enough non-Indians started doing this it could cause some headaches due to the "predominantly for domestic use" clause. But in reality there's no way that pharma companies can stop developing countries from manufacturing critical medicines.

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#12

Post by coralreef » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:52 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #10

surrealvortex wrote: post #8

I'm conflicted about this article. On the one hand, the pharmaceutical companies gouging ordinary Americans is abominable. Doing something to circumvent their greed is something to support. On the other hand, if enough people exploit loopholes like this, and the pharma company actually felt a significant drain in revenue, they may decide not to license the manufacture of these drugs in India at lower prices. If $84,0…

What exactly is "gouging?" The average wedding in the U.S. is almost $30,000. Average new car price is $33,000. Is $84,000 one-time an unreasonable price for a complete cure to a chronic disease?

But you can choose to have a cheap wedding, and choose to buy a used car.

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#13

Post by maxerickson » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:53 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #10

surrealvortex wrote: post #8

I'm conflicted about this article. On the one hand, the pharmaceutical companies gouging ordinary Americans is abominable. Doing something to circumvent their greed is something to support. On the other hand, if enough people exploit loopholes like this, and the pharma company actually felt a significant drain in revenue, they may decide not to license the manufacture of these drugs in India at lower prices. If $84,0…

What exactly is "gouging?" The average wedding in the U.S. is almost $30,000. Average new car price is $33,000. Is $84,000 one-time an unreasonable price for a complete cure to a chronic disease?

A better comparison is the several hundred thousand for the not as good treatment, a liver transplant.

There's still lots of room for a policy discussion. Can we develop such cures and pay less for them?

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#14

Post by giarc » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:53 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #10

surrealvortex wrote: post #8

I'm conflicted about this article. On the one hand, the pharmaceutical companies gouging ordinary Americans is abominable. Doing something to circumvent their greed is something to support. On the other hand, if enough people exploit loopholes like this, and the pharma company actually felt a significant drain in revenue, they may decide not to license the manufacture of these drugs in India at lower prices. If $84,0…

What exactly is "gouging?" The average wedding in the U.S. is almost $30,000. Average new car price is $33,000. Is $84,000 one-time an unreasonable price for a complete cure to a chronic disease?

I guess the moral issue is that we have medical insurance, we don't have wedding insurance and car purchase insurance. I guess you could argue that the author did have insurance and brought the price down to $6,000... after his liver was diseased.

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#15

Post by giarc » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:54 AM UTC

bedhead wrote: post #6

mirimir wrote: post #4

Yes, way to go! There are honest online pharmacies, but finding them is nontrivial. And there are numerous competent generics manufacturers in India. They've captured a large share of the global generics market in recent years.

.

You should re-read the article.

>Last year, Gilead entered into an agreement with India that would allow Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers to produce generic versions of Harvoni and Sovaldi and sell them in 101 developing countries at "a significantly reduced flat price."

>If you buy Hepcinat from India, Gilead still makes a profit as part of its licensing arrangement, but it doesn't make the unholy profits the U.S. government allows it to get away with.

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#16

Post by surrealvortex » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:55 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #10

surrealvortex wrote: post #8

I'm conflicted about this article. On the one hand, the pharmaceutical companies gouging ordinary Americans is abominable. Doing something to circumvent their greed is something to support. On the other hand, if enough people exploit loopholes like this, and the pharma company actually felt a significant drain in revenue, they may decide not to license the manufacture of these drugs in India at lower prices. If $84,0…

What exactly is "gouging?" The average wedding in the U.S. is almost $30,000. Average new car price is $33,000. Is $84,000 one-time an unreasonable price for a complete cure to a chronic disease?

Most of the criticism against drug companies is that while they invest x for R&D and actual manufacturing, they earn back at least 100*x in profits. I don't think there are many other industries that allow this to happen.

I'm not entirely familiar with what makes pharma patents that much different from software (you don't really have a monopoly even if you own a software patent), but that's basically what's happening.

Once a company gets a patent, free market rules no longer apply, and they are free to price their drugs as they want.

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#17

Post by giarc » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:56 AM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #3

> took the pills for 83 days (saving one for possible testing just in case) I would try to arrange testing before starting therapy, or at least at the point of starting therapy. There are labs that will run the test for a few hundred dollars (and a lot less if you know someone at a university, it could even be an analytical chemists' bachelor degree project).

I guess you could reason they are safe to take regardless. If they are counterfeit, they would likely make them out of sugar or flour not harmful chemicals. It wouldn't be in the best interest of the counterfeiters to make pills that harm or kill the buyer.

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#18

Post by voodootrucker » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:56 AM UTC

surrealvortex wrote: post #8

I'm conflicted about this article. On the one hand, the pharmaceutical companies gouging ordinary Americans is abominable. Doing something to circumvent their greed is something to support. On the other hand, if enough people exploit loopholes like this, and the pharma company actually felt a significant drain in revenue, they may decide not to license the manufacture of these drugs in India at lower prices. If $84,0…

So it's fair for a multi-billion dollar company to exploit the "global market" by farming work out to 3rd world countries...

But not for a customer who is literally dying to take advantage of that same "global market" to save himself?

Like everything else in the global economy, laws are only enforced to protect the strong against the weak, and yet we wonder how all the wealth is accumulating in the hands of the few.

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#19

Post by quadrangle » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:56 AM UTC

bedhead wrote: post #6

mirimir wrote: post #4

Yes, way to go! There are honest online pharmacies, but finding them is nontrivial. And there are numerous competent generics manufacturers in India. They've captured a large share of the global generics market in recent years.

.

If for some reason, a poor person needed to pirate software that they couldn't afford in order to save their life, that would be ethical too. But this isn't even comparable, this is more like buying the very same software from an overseas licensed vendor who sells it cheaper.

Re: How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

#20

Post by remicade » Mon, May 09, 2016, 1:58 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #10

surrealvortex wrote: post #8

I'm conflicted about this article. On the one hand, the pharmaceutical companies gouging ordinary Americans is abominable. Doing something to circumvent their greed is something to support. On the other hand, if enough people exploit loopholes like this, and the pharma company actually felt a significant drain in revenue, they may decide not to license the manufacture of these drugs in India at lower prices. If $84,0…

What exactly is "gouging?" The average wedding in the U.S. is almost $30,000. Average new car price is $33,000. Is $84,000 one-time an unreasonable price for a complete cure to a chronic disease?

Yes, for the affluent those are what you typically spend. You clearly have never been seriously ill with a chronic condition. I have to take a drug every six weeks (remicade) that costs $17,000 each time for the rest of my life. I'm 23. Let that sink in. This is the state of affairs in the US. It's horrid, I didn't ask for Crohn's disease, but I'm being punished for it.