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And put some people behind bars as well.
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Inflating or price-fixing medicine that is ESSENTIAL to human life is not moral. It causes people to die because they can't afford it.
To the common response of "they just need to save more" is not fair to ask. That's saying the generic you pay $30 is now $330.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Not sure if you are being serious or not. Inflating or price-fixing medicine that is ESSENTIAL to human life is not moral. It causes people to die because they can't afford it. To the common response of "they just need to save more" is not fair to ask. That's saying the generic you pay $30 is now $330.
/s indicates sarcasm.
Submission statement of sorts: the NYT article for this was submitted twice in the last two days but got no attention; the pharmaceutical industry seems to be a topic of interest here (including some non-mainstream views on characters like Martin Shkreli), so I'm interested to see HN's take on this.
It’s important to note that this case is for generic drugs, not brand name drugs. The expensive drugs that make the news are generally the branded kind. Generic drugs are usually very cheap due to the level of competition. Interestingly, the US has some of the cheapest generic drug prices in the world due to the level of competition. I had read that for some generic companies, they make almost 100% of their profit by…
My mom, who lives in a southeast asian country, came to visit me in the US last month and I asked her to buy generic antibiotics; ear drops; artificial tear drops; generic antihistamines; and they all are much cheaper than what I would have paid here (and are equally effective in a way that I've been weathering fine in this allergy season with these drugs). My significant other, who is from the same country as I, is a medical resident in the US and she still orders meds from her parents.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Not sure if you are being serious or not. Inflating or price-fixing medicine that is ESSENTIAL to human life is not moral. It causes people to die because they can't afford it. To the common response of "they just need to save more" is not fair to ask. That's saying the generic you pay $30 is now $330.
"Inflating" the price of something beyond the cost of production is how you make a profit. Pharma companies are not charities and there's no reason to expect them to not try to make a profit. The morality of charging money for health services is subjective.
Now "price-fixing" is a different ballpark altogether. That's specifically illegal and rightly so in a capitalistic system as competition is what we're counting on to reduce prices. If they created a cartel to inflate the prices of generics then the companies should be punitively fined and the responsible executives who should be prosecuted.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s important to note that this case is for generic drugs, not brand name drugs. The expensive drugs that make the news are generally the branded kind. Generic drugs are usually very cheap due to the level of competition. Interestingly, the US has some of the cheapest generic drug prices in the world due to the level of competition. I had read that for some generic companies, they make almost 100% of their profit by…
It's surprising in light of the prevailing idea that markets enforce competition towards the lowest price. This idea forms the basis of the claim that market-driven healthcare benefits consumers by lowering costs.
The whole industry needs to be nationalized, full stop, and the current people in charge need to all be in jail.