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Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

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Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#41

Post by skohan »

dv_dt wrote: post #24
HarryHirsch wrote: post #9

Insulin is a solved problem, in first-world countries the sale price is fixed and there's public healthcare. But in America you are supposed to take "personal responsibility" for your own health and biohack your way ouf of type 1 diabetes?! Srsly? This s a political, not a scientific problem. Call your congresscritter.

The production cost of insulin is incredibly low. The pricing on it in the United States is systematic criminal manslaughter.

What's the actual situation there? I have read that cheap insulin for example is available at WallMart, but for some reason the price of insulin seems to be a huge issue.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#42

Post by tux3 »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #23
HarryHirsch wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take to the streets, like the French do?

Actually, the French mostly stay at home: the last gubernatorial elections had like 34% participation.

The primary tool we use to exerce Democracy is not so much the vote anymore, it is protests on specific issues.

Votes are too diluted, and there is no accountability for campaign promises.

Le référendum, c'est Place de la Bastille!

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#43

Post by spywaregorilla »

birdyrooster wrote: post #37
HarryHirsch wrote: post #9

Insulin is a solved problem, in first-world countries the sale price is fixed and there's public healthcare. But in America you are supposed to take "personal responsibility" for your own health and biohack your way ouf of type 1 diabetes?! Srsly? This s a political, not a scientific problem. Call your congresscritter.

Found your problem: "African American adults are 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician." Given that the middle class is very white and employed with insurance coverage, it virtually doesn't affect white people. Our politics takes black people's votes for granted and don't do anything for them.

Diabetes rates for blacks is 11.7% vs. 7.5% for whites. That is a ~60% increase, but it's hardly an issue that only affects black voters.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#44

Post by ChefboyOG »

gentleman11 wrote: post #36
f6v wrote: post #17

As someone who had to create transgenic E.coli in a lab, I admire the effort. It’s hard to get it right, especially when trying to make bacteria produce stuff for you. However, it feels like a huge step backward. Imagine you couldn’t afford to buy a piece of bread. Instead, you need to grow your own grains and build a windmill first. Sounds ridiculous in 2021.

My wife bakes bread almost every day and grows her own yeast. She loves it and the bread is fantastic. What is so ridiculous?

There's nothing ridiculous about the fact that your wife enjoys baking bread.

There's a lot that's ridiculous about bread being so expensive that recreating the entire supply chain in your backyard is the only economically viable option for obtaining it.

The metaphor pretty clearly was not about critiquing baking as a hobby.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#45

Post by [deleted] »

gentleman11 wrote: post #36
f6v wrote: post #17

As someone who had to create transgenic E.coli in a lab, I admire the effort. It’s hard to get it right, especially when trying to make bacteria produce stuff for you. However, it feels like a huge step backward. Imagine you couldn’t afford to buy a piece of bread. Instead, you need to grow your own grains and build a windmill first. Sounds ridiculous in 2021.

My wife bakes bread almost every day and grows her own yeast. She loves it and the bread is fantastic. What is so ridiculous?

[deleted]

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#46

Post by api »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #9

Insulin is a solved problem, in first-world countries the sale price is fixed and there's public healthcare. But in America you are supposed to take "personal responsibility" for your own health and biohack your way ouf of type 1 diabetes?! Srsly? This s a political, not a scientific problem. Call your congresscritter.

The US health care system combines everything bad about government-run health care (slow progress due to heavy regulation, layers of bureaucracy, government-enforced drug monopolies) with everything bad about free-enterprise health care (inequality, market price fixing, uneven quality, lots of quackery at the edges of regulation).

We need to pick something. If we're going the free enterprise way we need competition, price transparency, quality and outcome transparency, more open markets, and much lower taxes. If we're going the state-run or state-insured way then we need to whole-ass it and vertically integrate and drop the state-backed private insurance hybrid nightmare.

The US does this pessimum thing all over the place. We are taxed almost like a more "socialist" country (unless you are rich enough to offshore and play tax loophole games) but do not get the benefits of one. Either cut my taxes down to Costa Rica levels or give me benefits at least as good as Canada please.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#47

Post by lotsofpulp »

minitoar wrote: post #10
sparrish wrote: post #8

This is bogus. Wal-mart sells insulin for $24.88 a vial without prescription currently. It's only the newer 'guchi' insulin brands that are crazy expensive. Stuff from 1996 that is compared to in this article is actually cheaper than it was in 1996 (adjusted for inflation).

it’s “Gucci”, like the luxury brand

Funnily enough, also a "luxury" brand.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#48

Post by lotsofpulp »

gruez wrote: post #26
burkaman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not branding, the newer insulin is significantly different and better for almost every patient. https://diabetesstrong.com/walmart-insulin/ It's likely not what your doctor prescribed, it doesn't last as long, it requires you (or your young children) to eat on a very specific schedule, it can't be used with an insulin pen or insulin pump, it's just all around a worse and less effective treatment.

Seems like everything is working as intended? A corporation invests money to develop a better product, and the government gives them a 20 year monopoly on it so they charge a premium and recoup their investment. As a patient if you want to pay the premium for it, you can get the better product, otherwise you can still stick with whatever walmart's selling. It's worse, but it's not any worse than what you'd had if the…

But that does not make for emotion inducing tweets.

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#49

Post by [deleted] »

skohan wrote: post #41
dv_dt wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The production cost of insulin is incredibly low. The pricing on it in the United States is systematic criminal manslaughter.

What's the actual situation there? I have read that cheap insulin for example is available at WallMart, but for some reason the price of insulin seems to be a huge issue.

[deleted]

Re: Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

#50

Post by OriginalNebula »

gruez wrote: post #26
burkaman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not branding, the newer insulin is significantly different and better for almost every patient. https://diabetesstrong.com/walmart-insulin/ It's likely not what your doctor prescribed, it doesn't last as long, it requires you (or your young children) to eat on a very specific schedule, it can't be used with an insulin pen or insulin pump, it's just all around a worse and less effective treatment.

Seems like everything is working as intended? A corporation invests money to develop a better product, and the government gives them a 20 year monopoly on it so they charge a premium and recoup their investment. As a patient if you want to pay the premium for it, you can get the better product, otherwise you can still stick with whatever walmart's selling. It's worse, but it's not any worse than what you'd had if the…

Do you think a gross profit margin of 93% is fair?
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