Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds • Hacker News Board

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#31

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 8:33 PM UTC

hourago wrote: post #14

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #4

Even at 100x the price, the COVID vaccines have more consumer surplus than most things people buy. I want pharma and medical innovation to be huge money makers. I want founders and early employees in companies that innovate in these spaces to be fabulously wealthy. I want ambitious young people to dream of becoming a billionaire by curing cancer rather thank making a social media app.

> I want pharma and medical innovation to be huge money makers. I want citizens to not die of treatable diseases. Our goals seem to be different.

I want citizens not to die of untreatable diseases. It is better to have very expensive treatments for a disease than no treatments for a disease.

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#32

Post by pg_bot » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 8:33 PM UTC

Big Pharma also pays billions in taxes to fund agencies like the NIH. While there are certainly a lot of shenanigans with intellectual property rights and market exclusivity at the end of the day we do get extreme value from pharmaceutical companies. If there was more competition, we would not see price hikes as often as we do.

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#33

Post by bobkazamakis » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 8:34 PM UTC

amadeuspagel wrote: post #2

If you produce something socially useless, no one cares how much you charge for it, but if you produce something that saves lives, then it's "greedy" to charge as much money as possible for it.

...yes? Why is "greedy" in scare quotes?

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#34

Post by TrueGeek » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 8:34 PM UTC

nullish_signal wrote: post #3

I want an end to Pharmaceutical Ads in the USA

I spend $900 a month on an anti-seizure drug. At least, until I hit my $6,500 deductible.

The company that makes it is publicly traded so I looked up their financials. The drug is a generic and the patent expired decades ago. Very little is spent on “R&D”. Almost all of their money goes to “advertising”.

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#35

Post by mlsu » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 8:38 PM UTC

from wrote: post #8

amadeuspagel wrote: post #2

If you produce something socially useless, no one cares how much you charge for it, but if you produce something that saves lives, then it's "greedy" to charge as much money as possible for it.

What people also don't realize is that they only have the 20 year patent period to make money in. After that the drug is copied by generics companies. This incentivises innovation while also not placing a permanent burden on the economy. Pharmaceuticals are 10-20% of healthcare spending and probably have a very good $/lives saved ratio. Isn't it great how you can just take cefalexin instead of having to get cut open…

This is the sad reality. Doctors, hospitals, and healthcare admin. staff consume the fat of healthcare market failure. But nobody wants to blame them -- they like their doctor; being a doctor is hard, so if you are a doctor you deserve a Ferrari.

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#36

Post by scotty79 » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 8:44 PM UTC

amadeuspagel wrote: post #2

If you produce something socially useless, no one cares how much you charge for it, but if you produce something that saves lives, then it's "greedy" to charge as much money as possible for it.

That is correct. If you are away from me then I don't care. If I'm falling to my death but you somehow managed to grab the rope and can stop my fall and pull me back up but instead you use this opportunity to demand as much money from me as possible then calling you "greedy" is literally mildest what anyone can call you.

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#37

Post by lost_tourist » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 8:46 PM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #36

amadeuspagel wrote: post #2

If you produce something socially useless, no one cares how much you charge for it, but if you produce something that saves lives, then it's "greedy" to charge as much money as possible for it.

That is correct. If you are away from me then I don't care. If I'm falling to my death but you somehow managed to grab the rope and can stop my fall and pull me back up but instead you use this opportunity to demand as much money from me as possible then calling you "greedy" is literally mildest what anyone can call you.

The hep c vaccine is one of the biggest examples of this. No money, no cure.

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#38

Post by scotty79 » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 8:50 PM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #4

Even at 100x the price, the COVID vaccines have more consumer surplus than most things people buy. I want pharma and medical innovation to be huge money makers. I want founders and early employees in companies that innovate in these spaces to be fabulously wealthy. I want ambitious young people to dream of becoming a billionaire by curing cancer rather thank making a social media app.

That's not what happens in Big Pharma. In anything but covid their huge money makers are marketing, lobbying and bribery. Medical innovation lies somewhere at the bitter end.

Successful covid vaccines didn't come from Big Pharma. Moderna and Novartis were not that.

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#39

Post by akomtu » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 9:03 PM UTC

Greed is a fundamental force of nature that gives life to the capitalism machine and our society. Money are the carrier particles of greed, they enable it to reach far. Corporations are the star-like centers of greed. Even though greed is poisonous, it's far better than fear that was the force behind master-slave societies of the past.

The next iteration of our society will run on pure ambition: the desire to be better, more knowledgeable or skillful, than others.

Re: Big Pharma Greed’s Knows No Bounds

#40

Post by tombert » Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 9:04 PM UTC

from wrote: post #8

amadeuspagel wrote: post #2

If you produce something socially useless, no one cares how much you charge for it, but if you produce something that saves lives, then it's "greedy" to charge as much money as possible for it.

What people also don't realize is that they only have the 20 year patent period to make money in. After that the drug is copied by generics companies. This incentivises innovation while also not placing a permanent burden on the economy. Pharmaceuticals are 10-20% of healthcare spending and probably have a very good $/lives saved ratio. Isn't it great how you can just take cefalexin instead of having to get cut open…

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I absolutely question every aspect of why healthcare in the US is overpriced, including but not limited to overcharging for stuff that is a glorified search on webmd.