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Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

arstechnica.com

31–40 of 55 posts

Re: Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

#31

This is why vaccine development and pharmaceuticals in general should be a public good, owned by the public sector, priced as a public good.

Can we say the same thing about social media companies ? I would also suggest that 'owned by public sector' does not mean 'public good'. Even when a private corporation influenced/directed/controlled by federal authorities -- it is problematic. I do not know of a political system that can effectively check federal government so that it stays for public good. Money-sponsored or various threatened-by-force election mod…

In my country, many of the state-controlled public services (e.g., electricity, water and sewage) are very expensive due to mismanagement. Others, like public healthcare are mediocre (don't scale well), albeit costly. Many of these entities suffer from being exposed to political influence.

Re: Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

#32
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was the last time USPS wowed you with their innovations and speed?

Coming from a European country the USPS reliability and speed of delivery is impressive, you have no idea how good you have it for a country of this size. Teller service at the USPS now that is pretty terrible true, but if there is no innovation it’s because congress won’t let it. Why isn’t the USPS offering banking services for example like other postal services do?

Banking and payment monopolies are very important for the US political system. As a last resort, banks want to be able to de-bank grass roots political opposition and giving all citizens a post office bank account would make this impossible without violating the first amendment. Thats why the US doesn't have this while western countries with stricter political speech codes do.

Re: Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

#33
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was the last time USPS wowed you with their innovations and speed?

Coming from a European country the USPS reliability and speed of delivery is impressive, you have no idea how good you have it for a country of this size. Teller service at the USPS now that is pretty terrible true, but if there is no innovation it’s because congress won’t let it. Why isn’t the USPS offering banking services for example like other postal services do?

Because a post office’s core competence is mail delivery and not banking. If you want bank services go to a bank. In the US at least it feels like there are too many bank branches with more being built each year.

Re: Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

#34

This is why vaccine development and pharmaceuticals in general should be a public good, owned by the public sector, priced as a public good.

When was the last time USPS wowed you with their innovations and speed?

Very consistently, one of the few delivery services that can consistently deliver packages to me. And also at a great price!

Amazon is a close second, but they're vertically integrated so that's not really a good comparison.

FedEx and DHL are consistently terrible experiences.

Re: Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we say the same thing about social media companies ? I would also suggest that 'owned by public sector' does not mean 'public good'. Even when a private corporation influenced/directed/controlled by federal authorities -- it is problematic. I do not know of a political system that can effectively check federal government so that it stays for public good. Money-sponsored or various threatened-by-force election mod…

In my country, many of the state-controlled public services (e.g., electricity, water and sewage) are very expensive due to mismanagement. Others, like public healthcare are mediocre (don't scale well), albeit costly. Many of these entities suffer from being exposed to political influence.

This being the crux of the problem. Obtaining the benefit of state owned/controlled operations for such things without allowing them to be ruined by constant political interference in sync with the routine electoral cycles. A public health system or sewage or electricity is a multi decade resource of benefit to several generations of citizens… but politicians tend to think about the next election not their old age and future generations needs. It really requires and active and engaged citizenry to make proper operation a priority over the normal sort of political pandering.

Re: Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

#36
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will greatly decrease R+D spending on disruptive new pharmaceutical drugs. The Covid vaccines were developed and deployed by private industry.

lol what? the Covid vaccines were funded by the US goverment (and others).

[deleted]

Re: Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

#38
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will greatly decrease R+D spending on disruptive new pharmaceutical drugs. The Covid vaccines were developed and deployed by private industry.

lol what? the Covid vaccines were funded by the US goverment (and others).

As customers of the vaccine to deliver to their citizenry. You might as well say Microsoft is funded by the US government (and others) because they buy Windows and Office licenses: technically true and also misleading because it’s revenue for a product they sold them for a profit. Those profits fund further R&D into new products, some of which will be sold on the private market and some of which will be sold to governments.

Re: Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

#39

This is why vaccine development and pharmaceuticals in general should be a public good, owned by the public sector, priced as a public good.

Why don’t any governments get in that business then? They could distribute it locally but sell the vaccines and pharmaceuticals they develop to foreign countries and make a bunch of profit.

Re: Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on Covid vaccine “consistent with the value”

#40
post #20

In terms of how much benefit a company provides, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines literally provided trillions of dollars of benefit as it saved a bunch of lives and enabled economies to restart. I want these types of companies to make obscene amounts of money. I want entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to fund these companies thinking they can make obscene amounts of money from them. I want bright young people to dream…

Don’t I pay for pandemic prevention with my taxes? Where’s that money going?

Being prepared, at the capitalist-society level, for a future possible pandemic wasn't profitable, so it wasn't done.

It will continue to be like this until laws change.

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