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

Biohackers take aim at big pharma’s stranglehold on insulin

freethink.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 392 posts

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

#261

Post by distribot »

bingidingi wrote: post #200
nceqs3 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every drug company gives away their drugs for free to people who can't afford it in the US. It's sad that not enough people take advantage of patient assistance programs.

Many people simply don’t know about them! I grew up poor and the amount of work that goes into finding and using some services is ridiculous. We bought a house using some assistance programs and at a couple points were speeding across the city to get paperwork in by sone deadline no one told us about (luckily we had a car!). Not to mention that services like foodstamps can be unreliable… I’ve probably spent hours of…

I had a similar upbringing. All the hours of my childhood in the local health and human services offices and WIC nutritional centers turned me off of civil servants and bureaucrats. It felt like they were always condescending and snippy, or pretending my parents' English was way harder to understand than it is, or just delighting in telling us our stuff was out of order.

Looking back they were probably just overworked and exhausted, but man.

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

#262

Post by hourislate »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #226
hourislate wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we all understand that Type II is preventable but I don't think that's the main focus here. There are plenty of folks who have Type I that can't afford Insulin and have to ration it causing harm and additional costs in healthcare. It's slow mass murder for Type I diabetics who can't afford their medicine. If you believe that it is a supply and demand issue why does the same Insulin cost 80% less in a country…

> There are plenty of folks who have Type I that can't afford Insulin and have to ration it causing harm and additional costs in healthcare Exactly. The preventable T2D is driving up demand (read: prices) for both T1D and T2D. I don't know about Canada. I do know about supply and demand. We all do. In the context of healthcare it makes no sense that ppl abuse their health and then expect prices to fall.

What if I were to tell you the the Insulin for Type II diabetes is $35 at Walmart and the Insulin for Type I is $380-$500. By your reasoning shouldn't it all be expensive?

What you fail to consider it that the company that controls the particular type of Insulin that Type I diabetics require is charging 80% less in Canada than in the USA with everything else equal.

Do you get it?

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

#263

Post by dempsey »

maxerickson wrote: post #247
KaiserPro wrote: post #243

I simply don't understand the healthcare system in the US. Its meant to be a free market, yet insulin costs a ridiculous amount. However Opioids and synthetic opioids are cheap as chips. To put it into context, In the UK the NHS buy Insulin at you can see the prices here: https://bnf.nice.org.uk/medicinal-forms/insulin.html They come from the same companies and are produced to the same standard. How can a bureaucrati…

Generic Insulin Lispro is currently ~$50-60 per vial in the US, without any insurance or assistance from the manufacturer (though you do have to understand the system and go to specific pharmacies to get that price). The reason it's not a big issue in elections is because lots of people don't vote.

And every state administers its own Medicaid system under a different name. Lots of folks don’t even realize that their free healthcare is mostly coming from the feds. In AZ, I had to explain this to several friends that depend on AHCCS.

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

#264

Post by 6502nerdface »

Natsu wrote: post #248
Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #213

My 3 year old daughter was recently diagnosed Type 1. Soon after her diagnosis I discovered a heap of articles about the Open Insulin Foundation. I was even on their website 24 hours ago. However, for the life of me I can't find anything "open" about the Open Insulin Foundation. Could someone please point me in the right direction where I can read anything with more substance than a news article quoting an interview?…

I don't know about this place mentioned in the article, but there's a similar orginazation at https://cheapinsulin.org/ that you can look into.

TFA blames "big pharma's stranglehold" for high insulin prices, but interestingly the cheapinsulin.org explanation [1] seems to be much more about "big insurance", with pharma companies basically forced to kow-tow if they want their products to be covered.

[1] https://cheapinsulin.org/high-insulin-prices

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

#265

Post by katbyte »

narrator wrote: post #233
Thebroser wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are crazy patents throughout the entirety of the insulin production pipeline. Some of these being extremely absurd such as patenting the pH of a buffer for specific protocols! I volunteer for the Open Insulin Foundation on/off when not too focused on my research project and it's basically how can we come up with a roadmap to making this decentralized insulin without violating any existing patents. An added laye…

Can't you just make Insulin like they made it 20 years ago using expired patents?

yes you can, but that means less profits, and america puts up with it - https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236...

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

#266

Post by moomin »

anchpop wrote: post #183
moomin wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time someone has tried to solve America’s political problems with tech.

Solving america’s problems with tech has a pretty good success rate. We tried addressing covid with social solutions (social distancing, self-quarantine, etc) and it was generally a complete failure in comparison to the technological solution (mrna vaccinations)

Congratulations on ignoring the qualifying adjective so that you can look like you’ve constructed a counter-example without actually managing it.

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

#267

Post by fernandotakai »

KaiserPro wrote: post #243

I simply don't understand the healthcare system in the US. Its meant to be a free market, yet insulin costs a ridiculous amount. However Opioids and synthetic opioids are cheap as chips. To put it into context, In the UK the NHS buy Insulin at you can see the prices here: https://bnf.nice.org.uk/medicinal-forms/insulin.html They come from the same companies and are produced to the same standard. How can a bureaucrati…

>I simply don't understand the healthcare system in the US. Its meant to be a free market, yet insulin costs a ridiculous amount.

the problem? patents https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/why_peop...

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

#268

Post by bingidingi »

distribot wrote: post #261
bingidingi wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people simply don’t know about them! I grew up poor and the amount of work that goes into finding and using some services is ridiculous. We bought a house using some assistance programs and at a couple points were speeding across the city to get paperwork in by sone deadline no one told us about (luckily we had a car!). Not to mention that services like foodstamps can be unreliable… I’ve probably spent hours of…

I had a similar upbringing. All the hours of my childhood in the local health and human services offices and WIC nutritional centers turned me off of civil servants and bureaucrats. It felt like they were always condescending and snippy, or pretending my parents' English was way harder to understand than it is, or just delighting in telling us our stuff was out of order. Looking back they were probably just overworke…

I felt the same for a while too, but then I met someone that happened to work for child services. These are some caring and empathetic people working for peanuts and they aren’t really treated well by anyone, management and clients alike. This person in particular hated the work but didn’t want to quit for fear of letting their clients (children) down.

People blame bureaucracy, and maybe there’s some truth there, but if these people were treated half as well as many tech workers are then maybe we could actually start making progress against the stereotype of miserable experiences.

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

#269

Post by slim »

Thebroser wrote: post #205
nom wrote: post #173

Can someone explain in layman's terms why there is no competition on this market? As insulin is so cheap to produce, why can't I just get my own product approved and sell it?

There are crazy patents throughout the entirety of the insulin production pipeline. Some of these being extremely absurd such as patenting the pH of a buffer for specific protocols! I volunteer for the Open Insulin Foundation on/off when not too focused on my research project and it's basically how can we come up with a roadmap to making this decentralized insulin without violating any existing patents. An added laye…

   it's basically how can we come up with a roadmap to making this decentralized insulin without violating any existing patents
This is how patents are supposed to foster innovation. Wasted effort reinventing the wheel

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

#270

Post by chefkoch »

clarkrinker wrote: post #38

Every time this stuff comes up it feels like we focus on the politics and not the people with diabetes. If you or your kid or your friends have Type 1 and are struggling to make your insulin out of pockets please, please, please call the Eli Lily hotline and get the copay card. They've dropped the monthly cost for Humalog to $35. Don't ration. Work the system. https://www.humalog.com/savings-support

Wich is around the list price you pay for two weeks of insulin in germany.
Post reply on HN