Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
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Re: Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
#2It would be interesting to see how much money was lost or gained by Bayer based on this. I assume that usage might go up by at least a factor 20 in India (and their production costs go down) so those 6% might actually be a fair deal in the long run.
Re: Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
#3Bayer shareholders should hold the senior management accountable for not caring enough to bring the drug to more than 2% of the Indian market.
Re: Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
#4It would be interesting to see how much money was lost or gained by Bayer based on this. I assume that usage might go up by at least a factor 20 in India (and their production costs go down) so those 6% might actually be a fair deal in the long run.
Probably a big loss. It costs in their other market sectors which include Chemo drugs, various palliative care drugs/equipment.
Technically, they're pricing the cure high so it doesn't affect their keeping you sick drugs.
This sort of shit is why medicine should be 100% government/taxpayer funded research agencies with an enforced zero profit outcome.
Drug companies are simply not ethical when there are shareholders and profits involved.
Re: Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
#5I think few people would argue that drug companies' prices are reasonable, and when it comes to life vs. death I no longer care much about the "they're a business, they're allowed to make a profit" line - of course it's still true, and of course they are, but there's a (subjective) line between "making a good profit" and killing people through greed.
That said, what pricing would be fair? When people claim that these pills cost bugger all to make, the answer is (perfectly validly) that the second pill costs bugger all, the first one costs $$$$ in R&D. So I don't know how cheap they would have to be to be considered a fairer price, and I've no idea if it's possible for anyone outside the companies to work out - even if you ignore the fact that what's fair is so subjective.
Re: Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
#6"The Bayer price of Rs 34,11,898 per year ($69,000) is more than 41 times the projected average per capita income for India in 2012, shattering any measure of affordability." This is good enough for any govt to act so and rightly done as well!
Also "6% royalty on net sales every quarter to Bayer" that isnt all unfair
Re: Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
#7I think few people would argue that drug companies' prices are reasonable, and when it comes to life vs. death I no longer care much about the "they're a business, they're allowed to make a profit" line - of course it's still true, and of course they are, but there's a (subjective) line between "making a good profit" and killing people through greed. That said, what pricing would be fair? When people claim that these…
This is a difficult decision to rule on, without resorting to petty emotions, without access to the underlying data. One must balance the incentive for drug companies to develop drugs (and get that development financed) with the price inelasticity of the healthcare market.
There is marginal cost, the cost to produce one more product independent of development cost, and fully amortised cost, which amortises the development (and, holistically, finances future development). Saying we should abolish innovator drug patents ignores the latter.
If we take the assumption that a life tomorrow is worth about a life today cutting pharma's revenues 97% means the development model is unsustainable. The government would have to develop drugs (or promise to refund all or most of the cost of developing a drug that gets FDA approved).
On the other hand we know that, since most people will pay whatever they able to for healthcare, drug companies have too much leverage. The market doesn't function well un-aided.
The problem here is the way this decision has been implemented throws up a lot of regulatory uncertainty. Having an objective framework for how innovator drug companies can be subject to need-based forced licencing (and under what boilerplate terms) would allow pharma companies to plan how to allocate development dollars.
Re: Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
#8I think few people would argue that drug companies' prices are reasonable, and when it comes to life vs. death I no longer care much about the "they're a business, they're allowed to make a profit" line - of course it's still true, and of course they are, but there's a (subjective) line between "making a good profit" and killing people through greed. That said, what pricing would be fair? When people claim that these…
> I no longer care much about the "they're a business, they're allowed to make a profit" line - of course it's still true, and of course they are,
I disagree here. Pure laissez faire capitalism works no better than pure communism or socialism. You need a mix of both to have a functioning economy and IMO it should be pretty clear at this point that health care works best (cheapest and most effective) on the socialism side. American has the most expensive health care in the world, but not the best service.
Re: Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
#9I think few people would argue that drug companies' prices are reasonable, and when it comes to life vs. death I no longer care much about the "they're a business, they're allowed to make a profit" line - of course it's still true, and of course they are, but there's a (subjective) line between "making a good profit" and killing people through greed. That said, what pricing would be fair? When people claim that these…
Truth is, clinical trials are mind-bogglingly expensive and takes years for turnover. Also some newer drugs (I'm not sure about Nexavar) are rightfully expensive to manufacture due to requirements in equipment, sterile conditions, etc.
If I were to say anything negative about this it would be that this sets a bad precedent for any new drugs coming to India -- knowing that the government can effectively void out drug patents after certain number of years, the big pharmas probably would not want to set up shop in the country altogether. Does that sound familiar?
This town is no longer friendly for business.
Re: Indian Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%
#10I think few people would argue that drug companies' prices are reasonable, and when it comes to life vs. death I no longer care much about the "they're a business, they're allowed to make a profit" line - of course it's still true, and of course they are, but there's a (subjective) line between "making a good profit" and killing people through greed. That said, what pricing would be fair? When people claim that these…
> I no longer care much about the "they're a business, they're allowed to make a profit" line - of course it's still true, and of course they are, I disagree here. Pure laissez faire capitalism works no better than pure communism or socialism. You need a mix of both to have a functioning economy and IMO it should be pretty clear at this point that health care works best (cheapest and most effective) on the socialism…
See also the unethical marketing of anti-cancer medication to cancer patients; skirting strict laws in the UK by funding "patient groups" who campaign to have those meds made available on the National Health Service when the meds have been shown to be ineffective.