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Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

mattstoller.substack.com

361–370 of 595 posts

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This one is particularly prickly because the high cost paid in the US funds medical R&D and extremely expensive clinical trials which other countries are free riding on by imposing price controls. We still need to fund the R&D and clinical trials (unless they could be made less expensive somehow), so the most obvious solution would be to have other countries pay their fair share so the US could stop subsidizing every…

Europe does drug R&D and still manages to sell their drugs at a reasonable price to sick people (generally because their governments utilize their buying power for the good of their citizens). It seems to me that US people have been sold FUD by there own pharma companies, if I’m honest.

> Europe does drug R&D and still manages to sell their drugs at a reasonable price to sick people

Most novel R&D, in America and Europe, happens in biotech. (“Big” pharma does trials, manufacturing scaling and distribution.) The investment thesis for most of this research does not work without the American market.

This doesn’t mean high drug prices are a necessity. Just that the funding needs to be replaced if we want to preserve innovation.

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2018, the average insulin price in the US was $98.70, compared to $6.94 in Australia, $12.00 in Canada, and $7.52 in the UK. This is a 100 year old drug.

It isn't a 100 year old drug. There are newer formulations that are faster acting, longer lasting, easier to administer, etc. They're newer so they're still under patent so they're a lot more expensive (because the rest of the world makes the US pay to develop the newer formulations). When insurance is paying for it, people prefer the newer formulations. Then, since most people have insurance, there wasn't enough of…

This doesn't pass the smell test.

Anyone making the decade-old version of insulin and selling it for 1% of the price would corner a large portion of the market immediately. Anyone without good health insurance, which is a large and increasing part of the population, would immediately jump on the lower priced version.

And since when are insurance companies excited to pay for the more expensive drug with limited extra utility anyway?

You are giving far too much credit to what is on the face of it a broken system.

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't a 100 year old drug. There are newer formulations that are faster acting, longer lasting, easier to administer, etc. They're newer so they're still under patent so they're a lot more expensive (because the rest of the world makes the US pay to develop the newer formulations). When insurance is paying for it, people prefer the newer formulations. Then, since most people have insurance, there wasn't enough of…

At least give the option of the old shit

> At least give the option of the old shit

It’s available. It’s just far less convenient and much easier to fuck up in a life-threatening way.

The insulin price meme is a particularly bad one.

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also a third issue: The high cost of medicines that are low cost to produce, and are sold at low cost elsewhere

This one is particularly prickly because the high cost paid in the US funds medical R&D and extremely expensive clinical trials which other countries are free riding on by imposing price controls. We still need to fund the R&D and clinical trials (unless they could be made less expensive somehow), so the most obvious solution would be to have other countries pay their fair share so the US could stop subsidizing every…

Do you have any data to back up that claim? Traditionally US pharma has had lower R&D budgets than their international competitors.

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also a third issue: The high cost of medicines that are low cost to produce, and are sold at low cost elsewhere

This one is particularly prickly because the high cost paid in the US funds medical R&D and extremely expensive clinical trials which other countries are free riding on by imposing price controls. We still need to fund the R&D and clinical trials (unless they could be made less expensive somehow), so the most obvious solution would be to have other countries pay their fair share so the US could stop subsidizing every…

That is a common talking point, but I don't know of any data actually backing that up. It just sounds nice like "they hate freedom". No, nobody does, try again.

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea why big tech is in there. If you think Google, apple, Microsoft, and Facebook are evil, then other kinds of business like Pharma, insurance, bank, agriculture are 10x Satan reborn combined.

Well those haven't had a couple decades of time working with the government to build regulations that suit them. They're early stage still.

> Facebook and Amazon are now the two biggest corporate lobbying spenders in the country.[9]

> Big Tech has eclipsed yesterday’s big lobbying spenders, Big Oil and Big Tobacco. In 2020, Amazon and Facebook spent nearly twice as much as Exxon and Philip Morris on lobbying.

> Big Tech’s lobbyists are not just numerous, they are also among the most influential in Washington. Among the 10 lobbyists who were the biggest contributors to the 2020 election cycle, half lobby on behalf of at least one of the four Big Tech companies. Together, just these five lobbyists contributed over $2 million to the 2020 elections.

https://www.citizen.org/article/big-tech-lobbying-update/

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#367

"Big Pharma" in the eyes of the public is two related but separate issues; 1) the weird employment-insurance-hospital loop that has developed in the US, and the terrible second-order-consequences of all the open-high/settle-low insurer carer system it led to, and 2) the medicine advertisements, and all the terrible consequences thereof. The second one seems like a much easier thing to get rid of using hard government…

These are all mostly non-issues outside of the US where virtually all countries have implemented some form of universal healthcare. The US is really unique in this respect, being so affluent and having an almost unbridled capitalism with a huge influence on politics.

It's always strange to me to read discussions about healthcare on somewhat 'global' forums like this, because this is a US specific issue. It's healthcare system is such a deviation from what is the norm globally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_systems_by_country...

There is, of course, 'Big Pharma' everywhere. However I think in the eyes of non-US public it's rather about large corporations wielding a disproportionate power. A power that is incentivized by profit motivates which don't necessarily align with the public health interest.

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also a third issue: The high cost of medicines that are low cost to produce, and are sold at low cost elsewhere

This one is particularly prickly because the high cost paid in the US funds medical R&D and extremely expensive clinical trials which other countries are free riding on by imposing price controls. We still need to fund the R&D and clinical trials (unless they could be made less expensive somehow), so the most obvious solution would be to have other countries pay their fair share so the US could stop subsidizing every…

I’ve been a fan of increasing tax credits for medical R&D in exchange for price limits along, or simply, with a limit on the ratio a drug can be sold domestically versus overseas.

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pharmaceutical companies spend even more on advertising than on R&D and still highly profitable though.

According to one google search result total pharma ad spend was $6.58 billion in 2020. According to the CBO pharma R&D was $83 billion in 2019. References: https://www.fiercepharma.com/special-report/top-10-ad-spende... https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57126

You are off by a factor 10. The 1 billion is in total over all the time needed to produce the drug (about 10 years), while ads are per year.

Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?

#370
here [1] they say that Kamala Harris is seen as a friend of big tech and silicon valley, that would imply she is a friend of big tech corporations. Does this step signify a rift between Biden and Harris, or is that not the case?

[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20210206212101/https://www.nytime...

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