Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

esquire.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 259 posts

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#211

Post by valuearb »

Spooky23 wrote: post #207
valuearb wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As disgusting as this story is, freedom of speech isn't a freedom if it magically disappears because a collection of people say it instead of a single person. I'd much rather have a raucous marketplace of ideas and opinions that let people choose for themselves, over having the government make their medical decisions. For example, thousands of deaths have been attributed to the tough drug approval requirements in the…

How would you feel if your doctor gave you thalidomide to treat anxiety, and you ended up with a deformed baby as a result, because the raucous marketplace cared more about moving drugs than patient safety?

How would you feel if there was a drug that could save your child’s life, but you and your doctor were not allowed to be made aware of it?

And since Thalidomide hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from slow drug approvals.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#212

Post by triangleman »

valuearb wrote: post #182
triangleman wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is definitely some tax evasion in there somewhere, plus insurance practices and all the free money seems pretty messed up but maybe not a crime. Also lots of lobbying state governments for favorable regulations. The quote is sort of non falsifiable... It's a hidden crime we're talking about after all.

LOL. There isn't a sniff of any tax evasion or crime to Buffett's wealth. I'm also pretty doubtful he's ever lobbied anyone for any personal advantage, remember this is a guy who has publicly lobbied for higher taxes on the wealthy, including himself. "If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end -…

No, I would not assume buying Berkshire and going in that direction was anything but a purely profit seeking decision unless you have evidence to the contrary.

By tax evasion I mean buying companies and taking their profits as dividends, which means 15% tax or no tax at all in many cases. Yes it's reinvested but it's clearly an effort to avoid capital gains/income taxes. Buffets recent comments on tax policy have no effect on his tax position, for he does not play by the same rules as your average fund manager.

Same with insurance float, that's an interest free loan from policy holders to play with.

As I said, we are talking about hidden crimes here so that would almost by definition comprise 1) things that are unethical but not illegal, 2) things that would normally be illegal but can be reclassified as legal, or 3) illegal things that we don't know about.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#214

Post by contingencies »

ithinkinstereo wrote: post #60
iaw wrote: post #12

Very good write-up from Esquire, I'm thoroughly impressed with the article. That said, my visceral emotional response is strongly negative especially when reading the following paragraph: >In May, a dozen lawmakers in Congress, inspired by the L.A. Times investigation, sent a bipartisan letter to the World Health Organization warning that Sackler-owned companies were preparing to flood foreign countries with legal na…

And to top it off, they've even purchased/negotiated prosecutorial immunity: The Sacklers, though, will likely emerge untouched: Because of a sweeping non-prosecution agreement negotiated during the 2007 settlement, most new criminal litigation against Purdue can only address activity that occurred after that date. Neither Richard nor any other family members have occupied an executive position at the company since 2…

Brilliant. Who says lawyers aren't worth the money?

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#215

Post by CPUstring »

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #113
tclancy wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This smells of whataboutism and whatever the ethics of making addictive software, it's killed far fewer people so far.

>it's killed far fewer people so far. Sitting curled up in a chair for hours straight staring into a phone is killing you a lot quicker than you might think.

I imagine that "death from sitting too long" and "death from heroin overdose" differ a lot on the preferability spectrum.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#216

Post by rhizome »

valuearb wrote: post #211
Spooky23 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you feel if your doctor gave you thalidomide to treat anxiety, and you ended up with a deformed baby as a result, because the raucous marketplace cared more about moving drugs than patient safety?

How would you feel if there was a drug that could save your child’s life, but you and your doctor were not allowed to be made aware of it? And since Thalidomide hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from slow drug approvals.

Where is this dystopia of forbidden trade advertising to doctors and pharmacists? Advertising for drugs seeks to mediate the doctor's expertise and knowledge. "Hey what does it hurt if people have information?" It's not the information, it's putting in the hands of unqualified people in an area where qualified people are the best judges. I'm not limiting this to Western MDs or anything like that, there's just really no use in patients asking about xeljanz or whatever it's called. If anything, it causes ailments by suggestion. Not hypochondria per se, but something, and induced.

Beyond this, I'm too lazy right now to look up drug company kickbacks to prescribing doctors, and I'm sure there's plenty, but it would probably still occur even if mass media advertising was banned.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#217

Post by refurb »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #69
Animats wrote: post #63

... Medical Advertising Hall of Fame... This is a real thing.[1] They really give out awards for medical advertising. Typical writeup: "Ambien dominated the insomnia market like few products ever have. Our goal was to introduce a new way of thinking about sleep, and to introduce Rozerem as a new option for the treatment of insomnia. In order to take down Goliath, Rozerem needed to spend BIG. $200 million in broadcast…

Ick! This reinforces my belief that direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs should be illegal.

Really? The FDA did a study with physicians and they thought it was quite useful![1]

- Many physicians thought that DTC ads made their patients more involved in their health care.

- The study demonstrated that when a patient asked about a specific drug, 88 percent of the time they had the condition that the drug treated.

Of course the study showed there were problems, but it was the ads had many more positive effects than negative!

[1]https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm14356...

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#218

Post by refurb »

tryingagainbro wrote: post #149
hawkice wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more concerned people dragoon their doctors based on some half-incoherent Super Bowl ad. They can't possibly be convinced that's ideal for their health in most cases, but I think health insurance hides the costs of wasting your doctor's time. (Which is to say, I wouldn't be concerned about making it illegal if it stopped being so effective.)

That's why they advertise on Superbowl, TV shows and everywhere else. To make people think they have something and their pill can make it go away. Doctor Johnson doesn't prescribe it, another one will. Otherwise they'd only target doctors, in their offices, trade mags and all. http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-america-is-over-m...

Are you saying it's bad when patients take an interest in their own health? Doctors aren't mind readers.

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#219

Post by refurb »

beachy wrote: post #167
lostlogin wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is nearly everywhere. New Zealand, USA and Brazil allow it.

If its allowed in NZ, its rare, and limited to headache medicince, asthma remedies and the like. I'm always astonised when I'm in the US at the medical ads on TV. It seems bizarre that companies target advertising at the consumer for products that should really be selected on their behalf by a medical professional. And those disclaimer/warning crack me up.

Are you saying the ideal state is when physicians are the sole keepers of all medical knowledge? Patients couldn't possibly play a role in their own health?

Re: The Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis

#220

Post by thr0waway187 »

The thinly-veiled anti-Semitism of this article is abhorrent. Going after a family like this is shameful, the real people to blame are those taking drugs with solid medical uses and abusing them. Ever try to recover from surgery w/o painkillers? Pray you never do, you'll be thanking the Sacklers.
Post reply on HN