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Novo Nordisk facing pressure as study finds $1k drug can be made for $5

fortune.com

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Re: Novo Nordisk facing pressure as study finds $1k drug can be made for $5

#51

Post by Scandiravian »

ethanbond wrote: post #39
RantyDave wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not Pharma industry expert but ... I'm pretty sure it's much the same as venture capital. That is to say that's it's not that expensive to R&D it, certainly compared to the eventual sale price, but it's carrying the cost of the hundred potential drugs that never made it to market that's the killer.

No it’s also ludicrously expensive to R&D a drug, even if you just count the costs of the successful program. You’d be looking at easily $50-$150MM just in clinical trial costs, not to mention the years or decades of preclinical work. Factor in the failed programs and you’re looking at about $2B of spend in order to bring a drug to market.

If I remember correctly that cost is also only the price of developing a successful drug

Several drug developments are halted before they reach market. Novo for instance lost a lot of money on their bet to develop inhalable insulin 15 years ago

That cost also has to be recouped when finally hitting the jackpot

Re: Novo Nordisk facing pressure as study finds $1k drug can be made for $5

#53

Post by amelius »

karles wrote: post #9

Producing it is not the hard part. Researching it is... And you are not paid for your research "up front". It's added to the cost afterwards.

Society contributed to that research in the form of education, academia, infrastructure, ...

Re: Novo Nordisk facing pressure as study finds $1k drug can be made for $5

#54

Post by rapatel0 »

ecocentrik wrote: post #44
karles wrote: post #9

Producing it is not the hard part. Researching it is... And you are not paid for your research "up front". It's added to the cost afterwards.

There's not a single drug company on the market that stops charging a high price for a drug as soon its covered its research expenditure.

you also need to cover the cost of the 100 drugs that failed at various stages of the pipeline.

Not saying that it's not a screwed up industry, but stories like these distort the problem as well

Re: Novo Nordisk facing pressure as study finds $1k drug can be made for $5

#55

Post by clumsysmurf »

karles wrote: post #9

Producing it is not the hard part. Researching it is... And you are not paid for your research "up front". It's added to the cost afterwards.

There was a recent story right here on HN that contradicts that narrative.

"Big Pharma spends billions more on executives and stockholders than on R&D" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39405547

Re: Novo Nordisk facing pressure as study finds $1k drug can be made for $5

#56

Post by TylerE »

DarkmSparks wrote: post #40
TylerE wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There are currently about 1,000 cases of people who suffer from hereditary degeneration of the retina, and 10 to 20 new cases are expected to be added each year." I mean, let's be realistic here.

so it would be better for orzempic to cost $850,000 and limit its indication to people with MODY? How is that realistic? TBH I have way less a problem with pharma industry being allowed to make profits than health insurance companies. In fact the US is about the only country in the world that allows profits from health insurance.

The target market for Ozempic is tens of millions of people taking it every week.

The blindness thing has a worldwide demand cap of about 40 doses per year - it's a single dose for life in each eye).

Are you equally surprised when a one-off bespoke PCB costs more than a stock RaspPi?

Re: Novo Nordisk facing pressure as study finds $1k drug can be made for $5

#58

Post by pstrateman »

lostlogin wrote: post #48
karles wrote: post #9

Producing it is not the hard part. Researching it is... And you are not paid for your research "up front". It's added to the cost afterwards.

There is an awful lot of sympathy for the drug company in this thread. You are correct, research and approval is expensive. But at some point there is a limit. Things like insulin are long paid off, and the pricing there has generated controversy. People have been charged $1000 a month for it [1]. What’s fair? They are screaming out to be regulated when they behave so badly, and that’s what’s happened with insulin. […

Insulin isn't a single product.

If you're not distinguishing between insulin extracted from a horse circa 1922 and a modern synthetic analog, well that's just not being honest.

There's good arguments that the modern synthetic analogs are overpriced, but that's a more subtle argument.

Re: Novo Nordisk facing pressure as study finds $1k drug can be made for $5

#59

Post by grogenaut »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #7
quotemstr wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a diabetes drug. There has to be a biochemical catch here. What if there isn't a catch? Sometimes technology really does just improve the human condition with no serious downsides. Consider refrigeration or sanitary surgical techniques.

All the usable refrigerants were either flammable, toxic, or highly ozone depleting, or a combination, up until the 90s…

Pretty sure R290 is flammable and I believe being used more and more

Re: Novo Nordisk facing pressure as study finds $1k drug can be made for $5

#60

Post by ewoodrich »

clan wrote: post #26
echelon wrote: post #2

Ozempic is blowing up on TikTok. Celebs and young people are using it left and right. This is wildly popular and there are resellers and apps popping up everywhere to make it easy to get prescriptions. "Ozempic face" has become a meme as people try to guess who is using it. Several of my neighbors are admittedly using it. And they've lost 30, 40+ pounds in a matter of months. Months . This is a diabetes drug. There h…

What I find weirder is that people chase Ozempic even though they have introduced Wegovy. Which is basically the same drug but without glycemic control and hence more suited for non-diabetics. Both are Semaglutides and Wegovy directly targets weight loss.

They are the exact same active pharmaceutical ingredient (semaglutide), only differ in dosage and the design of the pen used to inject them. Ozempic is a multi use pen while Wegovy comes in fixed dosage single use pens that max out higher than Ozempic's highest dosage.

Glycemic control wouldn't be any different between the two at the same dosage but yes, people should really be seeking out Wegovy or Zepbound (tirzepatide) since those actually have a chance of being approved by their insurance for weight loss based on their FDA indication vs Ozempic or Mounjaro.

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