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

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

#71

Post by paulcole »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #64

A quick Google search shows that they paid $11 billion for the company that sells the drug(Sovaldi), and earned $1.3 billion off of it[1] in 2016. They make half of that in the US, and something like 10% of it in all places that aren't the US, Europe, or Japan. That's a 12% return in 2016, which isn't nearly as good as the comments in this thread would have you believe. It's an okay return, but it wouldn't really be…

Just out of curiosity, at what point would the cost of the drug not met your definition of fair?

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

#72

Post by Zigurd »

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…

Lots of research in the US is university and government lab-based. Even if private sector drug development were cut back, it would not end useful drug development. I suspect the way government and university research is monetized could be improved so that more competition would exist.

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

#73

Post by cowsandmilk »

(1) As someone who was following the market when Gilead paid $11 billion for PharmAsset, it was not a sure thing that it would be first to market or a premier drug. They announced $137/share on November 21 for a stock that opened at $65.49 on November 11. People like to point out how much money Gilead made on the deal, but that is Monday morning quarterbacking on something where they easily could have lost billions.

(2) The article claims Harvoni was acquired. That is not really true. Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) came from the Pharmasset acquisition. Harvoni is a combination of sofosbuvir with ledipasvir, a drug discovered at Gilead.

The combination of the two is a key part of the treatment; sofosbuvir was still taken with interferon (and ribavirin) for genotype 1 HCV, the most common form.

Treatment for genotype 1 HCV, without interferon required ledipasvir. The notion that Gilead contributed nothing scientifically to Harvoni is false; they provided a crucial component to the all-oral treatment of HCV genotype 1.

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

#75

Post by Zigurd »

jessriedel wrote: post #59
rdtsc wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Right now US citizens are basically subsidizing other countries when it comes to drug revenue via price gouging. I am ok with that. They can take even more taxes out every month if it means people get access to better healthcare.

Does it bother you that Europe and the rest of the developing world also free-ride subtantially?

No because the free riding is not actually substantive.

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

#76

Post by JoeAltmaier »

nkozyra wrote: post #39
rayiner wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You're essentially saying it's ok to price out large segments of the population for life-saving medication. This is life or death, not a new Audi versus a used Hyundai. There is an ethical consideration that your analogues ignore.

At some point, the price of a thing is related to the resources a person can bear on a task. People are priced out of better lives all the time - cars, jobs, where they live, what they eat. Its the way society works. To make medicine a special case, with the govt providing infinitely deep pockets, is irrational. Inconsistent with how we run everything else anyway.

Yes I believe studying, working, getting ahead ought to give me and my family a better life. Else what's the point? Its not just a game with points; its survival. Its supposed to work that way. If money doesn't buy the most important things, then we need some new system of exchange that does buy important things.

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

#77

Post by jessriedel »

Zigurd wrote: post #75
jessriedel wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it bother you that Europe and the rest of the developing world also free-ride subtantially?

No because the free riding is not actually substantive.

How so? The primary development incentive for the large majority of new drugs is the patent-protected revenue in the US.

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

#78

Post by MichaelBurge »

paulcole wrote: post #71
MichaelBurge wrote: post #64

A quick Google search shows that they paid $11 billion for the company that sells the drug(Sovaldi), and earned $1.3 billion off of it[1] in 2016. They make half of that in the US, and something like 10% of it in all places that aren't the US, Europe, or Japan. That's a 12% return in 2016, which isn't nearly as good as the comments in this thread would have you believe. It's an okay return, but it wouldn't really be…

Just out of curiosity, at what point would the cost of the drug not met your definition of fair?

I don't judge the price of the drug in isolation to be fair or unfair. A drug that costs $10 million could be fair in certain cases(if 1000 people had the disease, and it cost $1 billion to develop, then $10 million would be a bargain).

If their earnings within 2-3 years exceeded double what they paid for the drug, I consider this unfair pricing without much further thought. (Edit) After the correction from the other commenter, it looks closer to an 87% margin. So probably they should've paid more for the company to justify charging that much.

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

#79

Post by cowsandmilk »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #64

A quick Google search shows that they paid $11 billion for the company that sells the drug(Sovaldi), and earned $1.3 billion off of it[1] in 2016. They make half of that in the US, and something like 10% of it in all places that aren't the US, Europe, or Japan. That's a 12% return in 2016, which isn't nearly as good as the comments in this thread would have you believe. It's an okay return, but it wouldn't really be…

> A quick Google search shows that they paid $11 billion for the company that sells the drug(Sovaldi), and earned $1.3 billion off of it[1] in 2016

Well, we are only 1 quarter into 2016, and you are only looking at Sovaldi (when sofosbuvir is also a component of Harvoni)?

Q1 2016 is:

- $1.3B in sales of Sovaldi

- $3.0B in sales of Harvoni

So, that's $4.3B in sales in Q1, a poor man's approximation of multiplying by 4 is $17.2B in sales for 2016 at a gross margin of 87.2%. The profit on drugs that include sofosbuvir as a component in 2016 will probably be over the $11B purchase price.

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

#80

Post by bigpoppa »

- this guy took a huge risk buying this ‘life saving’ drug on the internet - amounting his worth of his existence to $82,500

- the drug companies paid to develop this drug, non-profits didn’t. - why is he not barking up their tree? http://www.hepatitis.va.gov/web-resources/advocacy.asp

- drugs sold in the usa have high costs to market including a massive tax burden on profits - this would be a problem with our government, not the for-profit business

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