Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
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Re: Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
#2The killer detail (in the article) is that 1/3 of the (small) development cost of 40 million were borne by the Dutch tax payer. How did that patent end up in a big pharma portfolio?
Who funds this and what kind of shit lawyers and economists draw up the funding schemes that give away full intellectual property, only with a (historic) backstop for individual preparation?
We need risked based co-funding, co-profiting (irregardless of wether it's governments or, say, insurers investing), a backstop on prices via qualy-s, relatively short patents, no gaming of patents via arbitrarily small changes, governments creating generics, ... And now I wake up.
Re: Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
#3Yes, less payout on rare disease drugs is less of an incentive to research them. But:
* Drug companies have profit margins of 15% on average indicating there is room. * many recent 'orphan drugs' were not newly developed, but off-label uses registered with the FDA for a whole new patent. * these drugs rely heavily on research done by universities through public funding. It stands to reason the public should get to benefit. * there is something morally wrong about setting the price of drugs purely based on demand. It is essentially blackmail: pay me or die / suffer.
Re: Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
#4The killer detail (in the article) is that 1/3 of the (small) development cost of 40 million were borne by the Dutch tax payer. How did that patent end up in a big pharma portfolio? Who funds this and what kind of shit lawyers and economists draw up the funding schemes that give away full intellectual property, only with a (historic) backstop for individual preparation? We need risked based co-funding, co-profiting (…
> relatively short patents, no gaming of patents via arbitrarily small changes
This, so much. I'd add no gaming of orphan drug patents. It's through the patent system that pharmaceuticals get their pricing power.
http://sourceonhealthcare.org/orphan-drug-act-fostering-inno...
Re: Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
#5Strange that the article doesn't mention Oncode institute [1], which has specific goals of repurposing generic and patent-expired drugs in combinations to lower costs and there were some discussions about making the drugs themselves
Re: Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
#6The killer detail (in the article) is that 1/3 of the (small) development cost of 40 million were borne by the Dutch tax payer. How did that patent end up in a big pharma portfolio? Who funds this and what kind of shit lawyers and economists draw up the funding schemes that give away full intellectual property, only with a (historic) backstop for individual preparation? We need risked based co-funding, co-profiting (…
That's also not a silver bullet see CF where foundation funded research and sold the IP to pharma company for 3.3B$ and the patients were then charged 300k a year for it.
https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/cystic-fibrosis-foun...
Re: Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
#7I think it would be better to have bounties for cures rather than patents for drugs you have to take forever. Pay a fixed price that is easy for innovators to understand and maybe the energy will focus on what we really want.
Re: Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
#8The situation described in the article doesn’t seem to be related to patents. Rather this appears to be a generic drug with a very small market.
There is only one producer of an approved formulation and they are charging too much.
The article mentions that the compound (lutetium octreotate) has been in use for a long time, suggesting that any patent term on the compound has lapsed. Novartis’ specific preparation has been approved for this use by the EMA. Compounding pharmacies have the right to prepare the drug without this approval, which they could not do if the compound was subject to a patent.
Theoretically another company could make a generic version of this but the market is probably too small to justify the approval costs.
Re: Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
#9The killer detail (in the article) is that 1/3 of the (small) development cost of 40 million were borne by the Dutch tax payer. How did that patent end up in a big pharma portfolio? Who funds this and what kind of shit lawyers and economists draw up the funding schemes that give away full intellectual property, only with a (historic) backstop for individual preparation? We need risked based co-funding, co-profiting (…
The pharma will likely also be employing people who were trained on the public bankroll. Not sure what's reasonable there though, it's not like society owns your output because you had your education paid for.
Re: Dutch join backlash at expensive drugs by making their own
#10Yes, less payout on rare disease drugs is less of an incentive to research them. But: * Drug companies have profit margins of 15% on average indicating there is room. * many recent 'orphan drugs' were not newly developed, but off-label uses registered with the FDA for a whole new patent. * these drugs rely heavily on research done by universities through public funding. It stands to reason the public should get to be…
The blackmail part is literally by-design. They call it value-based pricing, where the price of the medicine is not related to its cost plus a profit margin plus a margin for research and development of new or improved medicines, but on what each nation (pricing is adjusted per country) is willing and able to bear to keep a small group of people alive (or at least comfortable).
It puts quite a dent in public health care resources.
People who are in this business to actually help the sick hate this system with a passion, and some national governments are now willing to allow hospitals and pharmacists to experiment with creating their own medicine again as a result.