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Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

latimes.com

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Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#11

Post by dmuch »

coredog64 wrote: post #5
maxxxxx wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could already disarm that argument by looking at the numbers. Pharmaceuticals as a whole are one of the most profitable industries and their spending on R&D as a percentage is not that high. They spend much more on marketing.

> They spend much more on marketing. This is my pet peeve. If you are going to regurgitate a talking point, please regurgitate the _right_ talking point. They spend more on marketing and administration. You know, useless stuff like HR, IT, etc. What company need stupid stuff like that?

If you're going to make this complaint you should show how much companies spend on admin costs. Clearly the parent comment was making the point that they dislike that some [1] companies spend double on marketing than they do on R&D. I'm sure they also spend money on other essential services (they probably by pens), that's not all that illuminating unless you say how much. 1.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/big-p...

Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#12

Post by antisthenes »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #2

We need to find a way to decrease the time and cost of introducing new drugs to market so we can disarm the argument these drug companies have about needing insane profits to fund research.

Adrenaline was synthesized over 100 years ago.

Most of Mylan's drug portfolio has come from acquisitions of other companies. They sell branded drugs that have been synthesized years ago by other people.

The only R&D this company is doing is who to bribe in Congress and how to extort more money from the American public. True free markets at work.

Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#13

Post by refurb »

dmuch wrote: post #11
coredog64 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They spend much more on marketing. This is my pet peeve. If you are going to regurgitate a talking point, please regurgitate the _right_ talking point. They spend more on marketing and administration. You know, useless stuff like HR, IT, etc. What company need stupid stuff like that?

If you're going to make this complaint you should show how much companies spend on admin costs. Clearly the parent comment was making the point that they dislike that some [1] companies spend double on marketing than they do on R&D. I'm sure they also spend money on other essential services (they probably by pens), that's not all that illuminating unless you say how much. 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/w…

People may be surprised, but drugs, even really good drugs, need to do some marketing. You can argue over what level of marketing is appropriate, but if you had a great drug and didn't do marketing, you'd take a huge hit to revenue.

Also, pharma marketing is very human resource heavy. You need to hire reps to visit offices. That's not cheap.

Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#14

Post by lhopki01 »

drakonandor wrote: post #6
godzillabrennus wrote: post #2

We need to find a way to decrease the time and cost of introducing new drugs to market so we can disarm the argument these drug companies have about needing insane profits to fund research.

America's prices are a subsidy for the rest of the world, whom relies on American medications that they often outright infringe ownership of. Say what you want about America, but it can't be denied that the majority of drugs in the last few decades which the world depends on has been thanks to the American government, American companies, and the American people. One way to fix the price would be simply to stop giving…

This argument would hold more weight if the pharmaceutical sector didn't have 17% profit margins. Only beaten by Banks, Financial Services, Shipbuilding, and Tobacco. http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/...

Also pharmaceutical spending on R&D is much lower than many other industries.

Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#15

Post by jbob2000 »

drakonandor wrote: post #6
godzillabrennus wrote: post #2

We need to find a way to decrease the time and cost of introducing new drugs to market so we can disarm the argument these drug companies have about needing insane profits to fund research.

America's prices are a subsidy for the rest of the world, whom relies on American medications that they often outright infringe ownership of. Say what you want about America, but it can't be denied that the majority of drugs in the last few decades which the world depends on has been thanks to the American government, American companies, and the American people. One way to fix the price would be simply to stop giving…

Bullshit. Insulin was developed in Canada. Viagra was developed in the UK. Sure, 50% of the worlds pharma is developed in the US (as of 2010, it hovered between 30-40% until then), but most of the stuff people need has already been developed. So no, the majority of drugs that people use have not been developed by the American government.

Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#16

Post by maxxxxx »

coredog64 wrote: post #5
maxxxxx wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could already disarm that argument by looking at the numbers. Pharmaceuticals as a whole are one of the most profitable industries and their spending on R&D as a percentage is not that high. They spend much more on marketing.

> They spend much more on marketing. This is my pet peeve. If you are going to regurgitate a talking point, please regurgitate the _right_ talking point. They spend more on marketing and administration. You know, useless stuff like HR, IT, etc. What company need stupid stuff like that?

My understanding is that they have a huge sales force that sells directly to doctors which then also requires a lot of admin.

In any case I hope we can agree that they are highly profitable and could afford to spend more on R&D if they viewed it as worthwhile.

Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#17

Post by jgeada »

drakonandor wrote: post #6
godzillabrennus wrote: post #2

We need to find a way to decrease the time and cost of introducing new drugs to market so we can disarm the argument these drug companies have about needing insane profits to fund research.

America's prices are a subsidy for the rest of the world, whom relies on American medications that they often outright infringe ownership of. Say what you want about America, but it can't be denied that the majority of drugs in the last few decades which the world depends on has been thanks to the American government, American companies, and the American people. One way to fix the price would be simply to stop giving…

Since a significant number of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies are not American (http://blog.proclinical.com/who-are-the-top-10-pharmaceutica...), I find this statement dubious to begin with. And since pharma companies spend more on marketing than they spend on R&D (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/big-p...) I also doubt that research costs are as high as people claim.

It is much more likely that, given our largely unregulated market for medicine, the market is pricing medicines in this country as expected by theory: as high as the market will bear. No ethics or morals apply, just pure profit. Whether that is OK or not depends on whether you happen to critically need those medicines and can afford them.

Other countries are allowed to negotiate the price of drugs and/or restraint profits made, so their prices for the same drugs are often significantly lower. Companies in those countries still make a profit, just less than here.

Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#18

Post by danielweber »

antisthenes wrote: post #12
godzillabrennus wrote: post #2

We need to find a way to decrease the time and cost of introducing new drugs to market so we can disarm the argument these drug companies have about needing insane profits to fund research.

Adrenaline was synthesized over 100 years ago. Most of Mylan's drug portfolio has come from acquisitions of other companies. They sell branded drugs that have been synthesized years ago by other people. The only R&D this company is doing is who to bribe in Congress and how to extort more money from the American public. True free markets at work.

> Most of Mylan's drug portfolio has come from acquisitions of other companies

You say this like they aren't doing R&D. But the industry has just broken up into two sub-industries: the big firms who specialize in large-scale distribution, and the small firms who mostly die but some create the new successful drugs, and then get acquired.

Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#19

Post by danielweber »

jgeada wrote: post #17
drakonandor wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America's prices are a subsidy for the rest of the world, whom relies on American medications that they often outright infringe ownership of. Say what you want about America, but it can't be denied that the majority of drugs in the last few decades which the world depends on has been thanks to the American government, American companies, and the American people. One way to fix the price would be simply to stop giving…

Since a significant number of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies are not American ( http://blog.proclinical.com/who-are-the-top-10-pharmaceutica... ), I find this statement dubious to begin with. And since pharma companies spend more on marketing than they spend on R&D ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/big-p... ) I also doubt that research costs are as high as people claim. It is much…

> Since a significant number of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies are not American

Those foreign companies sell to Americans using American IP law.

> I find this statement dubious to begin with. And since pharma companies spend more on marketing than they spend on R&D

This is irrelevant. You can't draw any conclusions from the fact that I spend more on taxes than on housing.

> Companies in those countries still make a profit, just less than here.

Not everyone can be the marginal customer.

Re: Drug companies spend millions to keep charging high prices

#20

Post by fckyrdumb »

antisthenes wrote: post #12
godzillabrennus wrote: post #2

We need to find a way to decrease the time and cost of introducing new drugs to market so we can disarm the argument these drug companies have about needing insane profits to fund research.

Adrenaline was synthesized over 100 years ago. Most of Mylan's drug portfolio has come from acquisitions of other companies. They sell branded drugs that have been synthesized years ago by other people. The only R&D this company is doing is who to bribe in Congress and how to extort more money from the American public. True free markets at work.

Free markets?

You mean government enforced violence.

True free markets would allow anyone to manufacture an epi pen copy without being sued into oblivion while having state thugs seize your property.

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