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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

#121

Post by [deleted] »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #117
evanpw wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The suicide rate at Foxconn during 2010 remained lower than that of the general Chinese population at the time as well as all 50 states of the United States."

What is the rate of employers whose practices cause a large group of their employees to jump off their building all at once? I can't remember ever seeing that headline in U.S. papers except referring to China and such. Must be rare here. I wonder what the rate of mass suicide is in general for "all 50 states of the United States" vs Chinese companies like Foxconn.

[deleted]

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

#122

Post by corvallis »

Something to keep in mind is the population that typically has chronic Hep C requiring this drug. It's IV drug users who share needles. Think they have $84K? Nope. Think they have insurance? Nope. Guess who pays for it. Oh that's right, it's Medicaid! It's you, the taxpayers. Where is there a large concentration of people that have Hep C? Prisons. Guess who pays for it then? Still you! The prison systems are obligated to provide health care and treatments in accordance with community standards of care, which they do. They have treated many people already who meet the criteria of disease progression to qualify for it. Still think Gilead should be charging this much for it here and not elsewhere?

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

#123

Post by Dylan16807 »

hyperliner wrote: post #50

I really think this article is spot on taking on an issue that I believe will become more and more pressing over time as baby boomers continue to retire. However, this line felt of out of place: - "And then there's Gilead. It didn't even develop Harvoni itself; it made a business decision to pay $11 billion to buy the company that did so it could be first to market and reap the rewards, $26 billion worth. There is so…

> I mean, why is that obscene? We have seen crazier returns in [insert latest "stupid" app that made billions].

Some would call those app returns obscene too.

I think most people would call those app returns obscene if the customers were being coerced into the purchase and the unit price was enormous.

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

#124

Post by verroq »

pgodzin wrote: post #119
rayiner wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A car is financed over 5 years. You can't get financing on pharmaceuticals. As a matter of economics, the value of something doesn't (or shouldn't) depend on how easy it is to get financing for that thing. In fact, your financing example cuts the other way . That $33k new car is actually worth more like $40k to the buyer, because that's how much they pay after financing it. The market shows that people value an ave…

Or Gilead is exploiting dying people desperate to save their lives and have enough money to do so, while letting the rest die. And then I'm sure they are lobbying the government to make sure it won't do anything about it. Meanwhile, Apple is selling luxury products that people can buy if they would like to. And those that can't, survive just fine without one.

If all the poor people got naturally selected out then there won't be poor people anymore.

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

#125

Post by tim333 »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #117
evanpw wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The suicide rate at Foxconn during 2010 remained lower than that of the general Chinese population at the time as well as all 50 states of the United States."

What is the rate of employers whose practices cause a large group of their employees to jump off their building all at once? I can't remember ever seeing that headline in U.S. papers except referring to China and such. Must be rare here. I wonder what the rate of mass suicide is in general for "all 50 states of the United States" vs Chinese companies like Foxconn.

>large group of their employees to jump off their building all at once?

Didn't happen at Foxconn. They were all on separate days over a few years. Not sure where you got "mass suicide" from. It's not mentioned in the comment you refer to.

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

#126

Post by mhalle »

dannylandau wrote: post #93
refurb wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked on one of the old interferon drugs before Sovaldi/Harvoni came along. They sucked. Patient compliance was low due to the side effects. From what I've heard, it was like having the flu everyday for duration of treatment. If you any mental health issues (depression, etc) you couldn't take it since the rate of suicide goes way up. The new HCV drugs are an amazing breakthrough.

Does anyone know the prevalence of the most common side effects for Harvoni? I usually defer to the following site but they don't have info on the drug -- http://www.healthbee.co/

There are some reports of side effects of varying degree, but in general Harvoni's side effects are extremely mild.

When I did the trial, my physician indicated that in previous trials, patients couldn't reliably distinguish Harvoni from a placebo. My experience aligns with this statement.

While I was on a 24 week trial (longer than most people today) with ribavirin (which is only used with a minority of patients today), I experienced nothing I could directly attribute to the medication. My viral load dropped to undetectable in six weeks, and has remained so since.

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

#127

Post by forrestthewoods »

CaptSpify wrote: post #120
forrestthewoods wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America subsidizes the health care of the entire world. Because such a large portion of health profit comes from the US. If the US ceased to exist then global prices would increase and global research would decrease.

> America subsidizes the health care of the entire world. Howso?

Because profit is disproportionately earned in America. Europe, Canada, and the whole world enjoy lower prices because we pay higher prices.

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

#128

Post by rayiner »

pgodzin wrote: post #119
rayiner wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A car is financed over 5 years. You can't get financing on pharmaceuticals. As a matter of economics, the value of something doesn't (or shouldn't) depend on how easy it is to get financing for that thing. In fact, your financing example cuts the other way . That $33k new car is actually worth more like $40k to the buyer, because that's how much they pay after financing it. The market shows that people value an ave…

Or Gilead is exploiting dying people desperate to save their lives and have enough money to do so, while letting the rest die. And then I'm sure they are lobbying the government to make sure it won't do anything about it. Meanwhile, Apple is selling luxury products that people can buy if they would like to. And those that can't, survive just fine without one.

So the company that is saving some lives is more reprehensible than the one that is saving no lives? Companies that create life-saving things should be charities, while companies that create things everyone can "survive just fine without" should be richly rewarded. Right? That doesn't seem backwards to you?

It's not like Sovaldi grows on trees, free for the picking, and Gilead came along and fenced-in the trees and now is charging $84,000 for access. It created a cure to what used to be a terminal disease. It should be rewarded in proportion to the value of curing the disease.

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

#129

Post by mhalle »

refurb wrote: post #44
vdance wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

must me nice in your bubble that $84,000 as a one time payment is reasonable. normal people can't get a loan for something like this, and obviously don't have cash stored away for something like this, and like the article mentioned, the op won't get covered by insurance even though he's done his part and paid insurance premiums. he clearly had no other options. glad you drive a $33k car. seems like the op doesn't.

Do you think charging $300K for a liver transplant is gouging too? Because that's what this $84K drug just replaced.

Minor correction: the total bill for a liver transplant is more like $700-800K, medical alone (not including personal costs such as loss of productivity or wages).

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

#130

Post by Dylan16807 »

rayiner wrote: post #66
hyperliner wrote: post #50

I really think this article is spot on taking on an issue that I believe will become more and more pressing over time as baby boomers continue to retire. However, this line felt of out of place: - "And then there's Gilead. It didn't even develop Harvoni itself; it made a business decision to pay $11 billion to buy the company that did so it could be first to market and reap the rewards, $26 billion worth. There is so…

Note that a billion dollar profit would be a 3.8% return over the life of the drug (~10 years or whatever is left on the patent). You could literally get better returns with far less risk parking that money in Treasuries.

You're doing the math wrong. The suggestion is not a billion dollar profit on 26 billion dollars of costs. Most of the 26 billion dollars is profit. Chopping the cost tremendously would still leave a healthy profit margin.

As to risk, they bought an already-proven drug. That's not the sort of thing that earns massive returns.

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