Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight (1 Viewer)

[matttyl]

Another interesting note from the vice interview,

-Drugs are 20% of healthcare cost

-Dr's & hospitals are 80%

This all comes back to the even more screwed up secondary education system. Dr's cost too much, because their schooling cost like half a million dollars.

Ugh. You think doctors cost too much? It's ok for lawyers, investment bankers, etc to make large cash, but the people who are responsible for healing us shouldn't? You seem to have some odd priorities, I'd much prefer our best and brightest become doctors and not lawyers.

Doctors' salaries are not the problem.

So the doctor who charged ~$400k (and didn't accept any insurance) to put my family member's skull back together after a horse riding accident isn't a problem? That was the provider charge (doctor), not the separate but additional facility charge (hospital where it was performed). He's "the best there is", and he's there to make money just like anyone else.

 

[Clifford]

Are we at the point in the thread where people are justifying the massive price hike in a drug that saves lives because capitalism?

 

[matttyl]

Are we at the point in the thread where people are justifying the massive price hike in a drug that saves lives because capitalism?

Explaining, not justifying. It's simply the reality of the world we live in.

But also, didn't another Rx company come in and make the drug for like $1 a pill or something? That's also what you get with the reality of the world we live in.

 

[dickey moe]

Killer smirk.

Still, this dog and pony show and the soapbox those self-righteous Congressmen stood from didn't do them any favors. What a complete waste of time and resources.

 

[TobiasFunke]

The government is the one that enables their high prices in the first place by giving them patent protection.

Are you saying that Rx companies shouldn't have patent protection? I think their protection now last 20 years. I have a list of drugs getting a generic equivalent this year on my desk (as you know what it is I do). The big ones (the ones I recognize right off) are Crestor, Benicar, Vytorin, Strattera, and yes....Viagra - as well as a few other caner and HIV drugs.

Of course they should. But Commish asked who could force Rx companies to limit their prices and seemed incredulous at the idea that the government could/should do it, which seems a little weird to me since the only reason they are able to charge high prices is the government protection afforded to them.

Government and health care are inextricably linked. This just isn't an industry that can operate in a lightly regulated free market type situation.

You misunderstood my comment then. I think the government should absolutely hold their feet to the fire, but they go out of their way not to do it. They've successfully put insurance companies between us and big pharm so they wouldn't have to deal with it and look like the bad guys. I have zero reason to believe that the government is going to willingly bite the hand that feeds them

I can hope, but I'd believe it when I saw it. This, actually, is one of the reasons I'd like to see what happens in a universal healthcare solution....to see what the government would do.

Ah, gotcha.

Maybe we just need to nationalize medical R&D. Sounds crazy I know, but it's not like NIH is some disastrous poorly functioning government bureaucracy. They do great work. Budget them a ton more money, build some sort of incentivization into their compensation, and see what they can do. We're all subsidizing pharma R&D already in the current system, maybe this way they'd at least be more accountable to the public?

 

[James Daulton]

Another interesting note from the vice interview,

-Drugs are 20% of healthcare cost

-Dr's & hospitals are 80%

This all comes back to the even more screwed up secondary education system. Dr's cost too much, because their schooling cost like half a million dollars.

Ugh. You think doctors cost too much? It's ok for lawyers, investment bankers, etc to make large cash, but the people who are responsible for healing us shouldn't? You seem to have some odd priorities, I'd much prefer our best and brightest become doctors and not lawyers.

Doctors' salaries are not the problem.

So the doctor who charged ~$400k (and didn't accept any insurance) to put my family member's skull back together after a horse riding accident isn't a problem? That was the provider charge (doctor), not the separate but additional facility charge (hospital where it was performed). He's "the best there is", and he's there to make money just like anyone else.

$400k? And didn't accept insurance? Something doesn't compute. Regardless that's an outlier example that has no relevance to the conversion.

The doctor who saved my life by cutting the cancer out of me and re-attached my colon, charged my parents insurance around $2,500. He was probably paid roughy 50% of this. Was that too much?

 

[Steed]

We owe this guy for bringing these practices to light. Other wise scumbag companies like Valeant would go relatively unnoticed. The report that came out in them this week was damning.

Cfo: looks we aren't gonna make earnings projections this quarter

CEOs: just raise the price so we do

I don't have a problem with Merck and gilead making 85k a pop to cure hepatitis, they are reinvesting that money into r&d and it's cheaper to cure than to treat the patient for liver failure/cancer down the road.

But Valeant is the equivalent of a patent troll in the industry, acquiring drugs, closing distribution and charging 1500 for a month of Wellbutrin when a generic will do the job.

Here's more on the Wellbutrin story

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-08/how-valeant-tripled-prices-doubled-sales-of-flatlining-old-drug

Keepin mind this is only one drug in their portfolio of many more.

 

[matttyl]

Another interesting note from the vice interview,

-Drugs are 20% of healthcare cost

-Dr's & hospitals are 80%

This all comes back to the even more screwed up secondary education system. Dr's cost too much, because their schooling cost like half a million dollars.

Ugh. You think doctors cost too much? It's ok for lawyers, investment bankers, etc to make large cash, but the people who are responsible for healing us shouldn't? You seem to have some odd priorities, I'd much prefer our best and brightest become doctors and not lawyers.

Doctors' salaries are not the problem.

So the doctor who charged ~$400k (and didn't accept any insurance) to put my family member's skull back together after a horse riding accident isn't a problem? That was the provider charge (doctor), not the separate but additional facility charge (hospital where it was performed). He's "the best there is", and he's there to make money just like anyone else.

$400k? And didn't accept insurance? Something doesn't compute. Regardless that's an outlier example that has no relevance to the conversion.

The doctor who saved my life by cutting the cancer out of me and re-attached my colon, charged my parents insurance around $2,500. He was probably paid roughy 50% of this. Was that too much?

It was a ~12 hour surgery with I believe 12 personally made "plates" to put her back together, and one "mesh" holding her forehead in place allowing it all to heal (along with a trachea line). He was maybe one of only a handful of doctors on the east coast who could have done it. After an extensive fight, her insurance did pay for a portion of it, but no where near all.

 

[The Commish]

agreed...that's certainly part of it. Are we to believe the gov't is going to make them lower their prices?

Other governments can do, why can't ours?

It's not about ability, it's about willingness.

 

[The Commish]

The government is the one that enables their high prices in the first place by giving them patent protection.

Are you saying that Rx companies shouldn't have patent protection? I think their protection now last 20 years. I have a list of drugs getting a generic equivalent this year on my desk (as you know what it is I do). The big ones (the ones I recognize right off) are Crestor, Benicar, Vytorin, Strattera, and yes....Viagra - as well as a few other caner and HIV drugs.

Of course they should. But Commish asked who could force Rx companies to limit their prices and seemed incredulous at the idea that the government could/should do it, which seems a little weird to me since the only reason they are able to charge high prices is the government protection afforded to them.

Government and health care are inextricably linked. This just isn't an industry that can operate in a lightly regulated free market type situation.

You misunderstood my comment then. I think the government should absolutely hold their feet to the fire, but they go out of their way not to do it. They've successfully put insurance companies between us and big pharm so they wouldn't have to deal with it and look like the bad guys. I have zero reason to believe that the government is going to willingly bite the hand that feeds them

I can hope, but I'd believe it when I saw it. This, actually, is one of the reasons I'd like to see what happens in a universal healthcare solution....to see what the government would do.

Ah, gotcha.

Maybe we just need to nationalize medical R&D. Sounds crazy I know, but it's not like NIH is some disastrous poorly functioning government bureaucracy. They do great work. Budget them a ton more money, build some sort of incentivization into their compensation, and see what they can do. We're all subsidizing pharma R&D already in the current system, maybe this way they'd at least be more accountable to the public?

I'd be up for that The NIH and NSF do unbelievable work. My wife does heart research and I can't think of a single major breakthrough in our medicinal world that didn't have roots in one of those two groups.

 

[The Commish]

The government is the one that enables their high prices in the first place by giving them patent protection.

Are you saying that Rx companies shouldn't have patent protection? I think their protection now last 20 years. I have a list of drugs getting a generic equivalent this year on my desk (as you know what it is I do). The big ones (the ones I recognize right off) are Crestor, Benicar, Vytorin, Strattera, and yes....Viagra - as well as a few other caner and HIV drugs.

He can speak for himself, but I took it to mean he's just pointing out one of the realities. Personally? I think 20 years is way too long in this industry to hold a patent like that. But, I'm not a big fan of health care being a "business" in the first place, so I am biased.

So lets say we shorten it to 10 years. Rx companies aren't stupid, they will just jack up their prices even more for those 10 years - making these potentially lifesaving drugs even more out of reach for many people. That's also just "one of the realities".Another reality is that the government (through the FDA) gets to decide what drugs even make it to the market in the first place.

Don't disagree....this is a big part of why I don't believe in a healthcare business. We don't need to be making money off of health care.

 

[Quez]

Another interesting note from the vice interview,

-Drugs are 20% of healthcare cost

-Dr's & hospitals are 80%

This all comes back to the even more screwed up secondary education system. Dr's cost too much, because their schooling cost like half a million dollars.

Ugh. You think doctors cost too much? It's ok for lawyers, investment bankers, etc to make large cash, but the people who are responsible for healing us shouldn't? You seem to have some odd priorities, I'd much prefer our best and brightest become doctors and not lawyers.

I was being somewhat sarcastic in drawing it back to another cluster F, that is the secondary education system.

Like I said before, I'm not sure what the problem is, but there is a reason healthcare costs much more here than other countries.

As far as lawyers, that's a huge misconception that just because you are a lawyer means your rich.

 

[matttyl]

The government is the one that enables their high prices in the first place by giving them patent protection.

Are you saying that Rx companies shouldn't have patent protection? I think their protection now last 20 years. I have a list of drugs getting a generic equivalent this year on my desk (as you know what it is I do). The big ones (the ones I recognize right off) are Crestor, Benicar, Vytorin, Strattera, and yes....Viagra - as well as a few other caner and HIV drugs.

He can speak for himself, but I took it to mean he's just pointing out one of the realities. Personally? I think 20 years is way too long in this industry to hold a patent like that. But, I'm not a big fan of health care being a "business" in the first place, so I am biased.

So lets say we shorten it to 10 years. Rx companies aren't stupid, they will just jack up their prices even more for those 10 years - making these potentially lifesaving drugs even more out of reach for many people. That's also just "one of the realities".Another reality is that the government (through the FDA) gets to decide what drugs even make it to the market in the first place.

Don't disagree....this is a big part of why I don't believe in a healthcare business. We don't need to be making money off of health care.

Ok, lets say we don't. Rx development goes to the government and they hire who they feel is the "best and brightest". Wouldn't current Rx companies then just move to other counties where they can continue to develop their drugs (and possibly hire the actual "best of the best" and pay them better), and profits? Huge potential tax base lost, right? Would the government then say that anything developed elsewhere wouldn't be allowed in the US? What if that recent hep B drug was developed elsewhere?

Wouldn't that just be another "reality"?

 

[The Commish]

The government is the one that enables their high prices in the first place by giving them patent protection.

Are you saying that Rx companies shouldn't have patent protection? I think their protection now last 20 years. I have a list of drugs getting a generic equivalent this year on my desk (as you know what it is I do). The big ones (the ones I recognize right off) are Crestor, Benicar, Vytorin, Strattera, and yes....Viagra - as well as a few other caner and HIV drugs.

He can speak for himself, but I took it to mean he's just pointing out one of the realities. Personally? I think 20 years is way too long in this industry to hold a patent like that. But, I'm not a big fan of health care being a "business" in the first place, so I am biased.

So lets say we shorten it to 10 years. Rx companies aren't stupid, they will just jack up their prices even more for those 10 years - making these potentially lifesaving drugs even more out of reach for many people. That's also just "one of the realities".Another reality is that the government (through the FDA) gets to decide what drugs even make it to the market in the first place.

Don't disagree....this is a big part of why I don't believe in a healthcare business. We don't need to be making money off of health care.

Ok, lets say we don't. Rx development goes to the government and they hire who they feel is the "best and brightest". Wouldn't current Rx companies then just move to other counties where they can continue to develop their drugs (and possibly hire the actual "best of the best" and pay them better), and profits? Huge potential tax base lost, right? Would the government then say that anything developed elsewhere wouldn't be allowed in the US? What if that recent hep B drug was developed elsewhere?

Wouldn't that just be another "reality"?

Depends on where they go and what that country's view is on making money on healthcare. A good portion of the countries out there have governments that serve as a buffer between the drug companies and the citizens. That's fine by the drug companies because that's not how it works in this country so they can make up their desired profits here. Take that option away from them and ask them to go to a country where the government won't cave to them. What does that look like? I'm not sure. I suspect the drug companies would have to alter their business models and adapt.

 

[cstu]

Ok, lets say we don't. Rx development goes to the government and they hire who they feel is the "best and brightest". Wouldn't current Rx companies then just move to other counties where they can continue to develop their drugs (and possibly hire the actual "best of the best" and pay them better), and profits? Huge potential tax base lost, right? Would the government then say that anything developed elsewhere wouldn't be allowed in the US? What if that recent hep B drug was developed elsewhere?

Wouldn't that just be another "reality"?

If a drug is made elsewhere then the company would need to negotiate a fair price (i.e. what other countries are paying) like countries currently do with U.S. pharma companies.

 

[TobiasFunke]

The government is the one that enables their high prices in the first place by giving them patent protection.

Are you saying that Rx companies shouldn't have patent protection? I think their protection now last 20 years. I have a list of drugs getting a generic equivalent this year on my desk (as you know what it is I do). The big ones (the ones I recognize right off) are Crestor, Benicar, Vytorin, Strattera, and yes....Viagra - as well as a few other caner and HIV drugs.

He can speak for himself, but I took it to mean he's just pointing out one of the realities. Personally? I think 20 years is way too long in this industry to hold a patent like that. But, I'm not a big fan of health care being a "business" in the first place, so I am biased.

So lets say we shorten it to 10 years. Rx companies aren't stupid, they will just jack up their prices even more for those 10 years - making these potentially lifesaving drugs even more out of reach for many people. That's also just "one of the realities".Another reality is that the government (through the FDA) gets to decide what drugs even make it to the market in the first place.

Don't disagree....this is a big part of why I don't believe in a healthcare business. We don't need to be making money off of health care.

Ok, lets say we don't. Rx development goes to the government and they hire who they feel is the "best and brightest". Wouldn't current Rx companies then just move to other counties where they can continue to develop their drugs (and possibly hire the actual "best of the best" and pay them better), and profits? Huge potential tax base lost, right? Would the government then say that anything developed elsewhere wouldn't be allowed in the US? What if that recent hep B drug was developed elsewhere?

Wouldn't that just be another "reality"?

I doubt that would happen. The best of the best are here. We have top universities to feed the talent pipeline, great quality of life, the lowest upper-income tax rates, etc. Where they gonna go? Especially if we remove them from the standard federal compensation system for scientists and pay them well; then all we'd be doing is removing the seven-figure executives who contribute nothing to the process and the bloated marketing costs associated with running constant boner pill ads during sporting events and sending out an army of smoking hot chicks to buy steak dinners for doctors. Hell we still get a ton of innovation out of NIH and NSF already, without taking steps to incentivize them. We're not talking about a field where the feds lag way behind the private sector here, right?

 

[BigSteelThrill]

The government is the one that enables their high prices in the first place by giving them patent protection.

Are you saying that Rx companies shouldn't have patent protection? I think their protection now last 20 years. I have a list of drugs getting a generic equivalent this year on my desk (as you know what it is I do). The big ones (the ones I recognize right off) are Crestor, Benicar, Vytorin, Strattera, and yes....Viagra - as well as a few other caner and HIV drugs.

He can speak for himself, but I took it to mean he's just pointing out one of the realities. Personally? I think 20 years is way too long in this industry to hold a patent like that. But, I'm not a big fan of health care being a "business" in the first place, so I am biased.

So lets say we shorten it to 10 years. Rx companies aren't stupid, they will just jack up their prices even more for those 10 years - making these potentially lifesaving drugs even more out of reach for many people. That's also just "one of the realities".Another reality is that the government (through the FDA) gets to decide what drugs even make it to the market in the first place.

Don't disagree....this is a big part of why I don't believe in a healthcare business. We don't need to be making money off of health care.

Ok, lets say we don't. Rx development goes to the government and they hire who they feel is the "best and brightest". Wouldn't current Rx companies then just move to other counties where they can continue to develop their drugs (and possibly hire the actual "best of the best" and pay them better), and profits? Huge potential tax base lost, right? Would the government then say that anything developed elsewhere wouldn't be allowed in the US? What if that recent hep B drug was developed elsewhere?

Wouldn't that just be another "reality"?

I doubt that would happen. The best of the best are here. We have top universities to feed the talent pipeline, great quality of life, the lowest upper-income tax rates, etc. Where they gonna go? Especially if we remove them from the standard federal compensation system for scientists and pay them well; then all we'd be doing is removing the seven-figure executives who contribute nothing to the process and the bloated marketing costs associated with running constant boner pill ads during sporting events and sending out an army of smoking hot chicks to buy steak dinners for doctors. Hell we still get a ton of innovation out of NIH and NSF already, without taking steps to incentivize them. We're not talking about a field where the feds lag way behind the private sector here, right?

Nowhere, its an empty threat.

 

[The Commish]

The government is the one that enables their high prices in the first place by giving them patent protection.

Are you saying that Rx companies shouldn't have patent protection? I think their protection now last 20 years. I have a list of drugs getting a generic equivalent this year on my desk (as you know what it is I do). The big ones (the ones I recognize right off) are Crestor, Benicar, Vytorin, Strattera, and yes....Viagra - as well as a few other caner and HIV drugs.

He can speak for himself, but I took it to mean he's just pointing out one of the realities. Personally? I think 20 years is way too long in this industry to hold a patent like that. But, I'm not a big fan of health care being a "business" in the first place, so I am biased.

So lets say we shorten it to 10 years. Rx companies aren't stupid, they will just jack up their prices even more for those 10 years - making these potentially lifesaving drugs even more out of reach for many people. That's also just "one of the realities".Another reality is that the government (through the FDA) gets to decide what drugs even make it to the market in the first place.

Don't disagree....this is a big part of why I don't believe in a healthcare business. We don't need to be making money off of health care.

Ok, lets say we don't. Rx development goes to the government and they hire who they feel is the "best and brightest". Wouldn't current Rx companies then just move to other counties where they can continue to develop their drugs (and possibly hire the actual "best of the best" and pay them better), and profits? Huge potential tax base lost, right? Would the government then say that anything developed elsewhere wouldn't be allowed in the US? What if that recent hep B drug was developed elsewhere?

Wouldn't that just be another "reality"?

I doubt that would happen. The best of the best are here. We have top universities to feed the talent pipeline, great quality of life, the lowest upper-income tax rates, etc. Where they gonna go? Especially if we remove them from the standard federal compensation system for scientists and pay them well; then all we'd be doing is removing the seven-figure executives who contribute nothing to the process and the bloated marketing costs associated with running constant boner pill ads during sporting events and sending out an army of smoking hot chicks to buy steak dinners for doctors. Hell we still get a ton of innovation out of NIH and NSF already, without taking steps to incentivize them. We're not talking about a field where the feds lag way behind the private sector here, right?

We don't incentivize them with money now but there's plenty of incentive for them to get their advanced degrees

If I'm being honest, this is an area (research) where our gov't gets it right. Yeah, there's some politics in the system, but for the most part it's a pretty good set up.

 

[Sand]

Another interesting note from the vice interview,

-Drugs are 20% of healthcare cost

-Dr's & hospitals are 80%

This all comes back to the even more screwed up secondary education system. Dr's cost too much, because their schooling cost like half a million dollars.

The AMA wields immense power.

 

[flapgreen]

This whole fiasco is why healthcare shouldn't be a "business" in the first place.....IMO.

Been in Healthcare my entire career and I agree with you, but it will never change. Too much money and too many powerful people involved. Patients get caught in the middle.

 

[flapgreen]

When has being an ####### become illegal? He hasn't don't anything wrong. Truthfully I kind of respect this guy. He completely owns up to what he really is and its rare for anybody in this day to do that so I kind of respect it. Maybe I'm young but I would be lying to say that I wouldn't do what he did in raising the medicines price if I was in the same situation.

I hope this is sarcasm.

 

[flapgreen]

This guy isn't the problem. It's a witch hunt / circus. The insurance companies & hospitals are a bigger problem than the pharmacy guys. I have listened to him a few times, and he is just doing what his shareholders want. Don't hate the playa hate the game.

Exactly what role do hospitals play except to try to get/keep patients healthy? Pretty sure I remember your hate of the healthcare system from another thread. I hope these feelings don't keep you or someone you love from using it if needed in the future.

Meanwhile people thank god everyday for the doctors, nurses, and hospitals that saved their families lives.

"Doctors and nurses" are a very different category from "hospital administrators." I'd imagine that's the line he's drawing here.

I'm not sure what "hospital administraters" have to do with anything but you have to have a doctor's order for almost anything you do in the medical field, even when the doctor has no clue about what he's writing the order for. Some of the biggest crooks I've met in the field are doctors. Hospital administrators don't even make my top 10.

 

[flapgreen]

Another interesting note from the vice interview,

-Drugs are 20% of healthcare cost

-Dr's & hospitals are 80%

This all comes back to the even more screwed up secondary education system. Dr's cost too much, because their schooling cost like half a million dollars.

Ugh. You think doctors cost too much? It's ok for lawyers, investment bankers, etc to make large cash, but the people who are responsible for healing us shouldn't? You seem to have some odd priorities, I'd much prefer our best and brightest become doctors and not lawyers.

The best and brightest quit becoming doctors years ago.

 

[Henry Ford]

This guy isn't the problem. It's a witch hunt / circus. The insurance companies & hospitals are a bigger problem than the pharmacy guys. I have listened to him a few times, and he is just doing what his shareholders want. Don't hate the playa hate the game.

Exactly what role do hospitals play except to try to get/keep patients healthy? Pretty sure I remember your hate of the healthcare system from another thread. I hope these feelings don't keep you or someone you love from using it if needed in the future.

Meanwhile people thank god everyday for the doctors, nurses, and hospitals that saved their families lives.

"Doctors and nurses" are a very different category from "hospital administrators." I'd imagine that's the line he's drawing here.

I'm not sure what "hospital administraters" have to do with anything but you have to have a doctor's order for almost anything you do in the medical field, even when the doctor has no clue about what he's writing the order for. Some of the biggest crooks I've met in the field are doctors. Hospital administrators don't even make my top 10.

Hospital administration is a huge cost that contributes to the cost of healthcare in this country. Hospital organization CEOs make millions.

It's like saying you don't know what the Walton family has to do with the burdens low minimum wage places on taxpayers.

 

[Short Corner]

Aside from right/wrong, the guy is just stupid. Provoking Congress is a bad idea -- Congresspeople are vain, have long memories, and have enough power to make things complicated for you.

If you get called to testify and don't plan to say anything you stay calm and polite and repeatedly invoke the 5th in the most boring way possible.

It looked like that's what he was doing until the one doosh asked him his name and then felt the need to go on a tirade about answering questions. His demeanor changed from that point forward.

 

[Johnnymac]

This guy isn't the problem. It's a witch hunt / circus. The insurance companies & hospitals are a bigger problem than the pharmacy guys. I have listened to him a few times, and he is just doing what his shareholders want. Don't hate the playa hate the game.

Exactly what role do hospitals play except to try to get/keep patients healthy? Pretty sure I remember your hate of the healthcare system from another thread. I hope these feelings don't keep you or someone you love from using it if needed in the future.

Meanwhile people thank god everyday for the doctors, nurses, and hospitals that saved their families lives.

"Doctors and nurses" are a very different category from "hospital administrators." I'd imagine that's the line he's drawing here.

I'm not sure what "hospital administraters" have to do with anything but you have to have a doctor's order for almost anything you do in the medical field, even when the doctor has no clue about what he's writing the order for. Some of the biggest crooks I've met in the field are doctors. Hospital administrators don't even make my top 10.

Hospital administration is a huge cost that contributes to the cost of healthcare in this country. Hospital organization CEOs make millions.

It's like saying you don't know what the Walton family has to do with the burdens low minimum wage places on taxpayers.

This. The CEO of the hospital I work for makes more than most of the physicians. In my view the physician should be making substantially more than the guy in a suit sitting in his office.

 

[njherdfan]

The government is the one that enables their high prices in the first place by giving them patent protection.

Are you saying that Rx companies shouldn't have patent protection? I think their protection now last 20 years. I have a list of drugs getting a generic equivalent this year on my desk (as you know what it is I do). The big ones (the ones I recognize right off) are Crestor, Benicar, Vytorin, Strattera, and yes....Viagra - as well as a few other caner and HIV drugs.

He can speak for himself, but I took it to mean he's just pointing out one of the realities. Personally? I think 20 years is way too long in this industry to hold a patent like that. But, I'm not a big fan of health care being a "business" in the first place, so I am biased.

So lets say we shorten it to 10 years. Rx companies aren't stupid, they will just jack up their prices even more for those 10 years - making these potentially lifesaving drugs even more out of reach for many people. That's also just "one of the realities".Another reality is that the government (through the FDA) gets to decide what drugs even make it to the market in the first place.

Don't disagree....this is a big part of why I don't believe in a healthcare business. We don't need to be making money off of health care.

Ok, lets say we don't. Rx development goes to the government and they hire who they feel is the "best and brightest". Wouldn't current Rx companies then just move to other counties where they can continue to develop their drugs (and possibly hire the actual "best of the best" and pay them better), and profits? Huge potential tax base lost, right? Would the government then say that anything developed elsewhere wouldn't be allowed in the US? What if that recent hep B drug was developed elsewhere?

Wouldn't that just be another "reality"?

I doubt that would happen. The best of the best are here. We have top universities to feed the talent pipeline, great quality of life, the lowest upper-income tax rates, etc. Where they gonna go? Especially if we remove them from the standard federal compensation system for scientists and pay them well; then all we'd be doing is removing the seven-figure executives who contribute nothing to the process and the bloated marketing costs associated with running constant boner pill ads during sporting events and sending out an army of smoking hot chicks to buy steak dinners for doctors. Hell we still get a ton of innovation out of NIH and NSF already, without taking steps to incentivize them. We're not talking about a field where the feds lag way behind the private sector here, right?

We don't incentivize them with money now but there's plenty of incentive for them to get their advanced degrees

If I'm being honest, this is an area (research) where our gov't gets it right. Yeah, there's some politics in the system, but for the most part it's a pretty good set up.

When I moved to DC I was shocked at the number of international scientists working at the NIH, because there weren't post-doc jobs in their home countries in Europe. It's definitely a great investment that we make, it just surprised me that other countries don't do the same.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

I didn't think anyone's face could be more punchable when this story originally broke. He has really outdone himself

The highlights of the hearings I think has surpassed his punchability and moved into the Charles Bronson treatment level. Hell, even the mobster guys didn't smirk like that.

 

[fantasycurse42]

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/martin-shkreli-just-offered-kanye-222435409.html

This story is awful meeting awful.

 

[JZilla]

Finally a good deed

 

[Invisible Sky Wizard]

I didn't think anyone's face could be more punchable when this story originally broke. He has really outdone himself

The highlights of the hearings I think has surpassed his punchability and moved into the Charles Bronson treatment level. Hell, even the mobster guys didn't smirk like that.

Serious question. What's the difference between this ##### and Hillary smirking through congressional hearings?

https://goo.gl/Uwb4HH

 

[msommer]

I read a short article in the Economist a few years ago about the absurdity of the US health care system. The base of it was an anecdote about a company CEO who one Monday went to his doctor complaining about chest pain. He was EKG'ed, scanned, blood tested etc. for about $100,000, they couldn't find anything wrong. It turns out that the CEO had decided to do some yard work Sunday and apparently pulled a muscle....

 

[Mohawk]

Hey Sky Wizard... if you listened to those hearings at all, you'd be smirking too. What an incompetent bunch of idiots in that hearing. Hell, she probably should have walked out! Witch hunts are always smirk-worthy!

 

[St. Louis Bob]

This guy needs to get shived. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/schoolkids-remake-750-malaria-drug-for-2/?WT.mc_id=SA_TW_HLTH_NEWS

 

[LAUNCH]

http://www.pharmaskeletons.com/

Martin Shkreli  started his own website to call out pharmaceutical companies for their illegal behavior. 

 

[ShamrockPride]

http://www.pharmaskeletons.com/

Martin Shkreli  started his own website to call out pharmaceutical companies for their illegal behavior. 

This has the same stench of the Pats homers and their little yourteamcheats.com 

 

[LAUNCH]

http://www.pharmaskeletons.com/

He wrote this too soon.

Purdue

I know absolutely no one who blames this company for the opioid epidemic.

I doubt they even promote OxyContin.

City Sues Purdue Pharma For Supplying Oxy to Local Black Market

https://www.thefix.com/city-sues-purdue-pharma-supplying-oxy-local-black-market

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-oxycontin-part3/

Purdue and three executives pleaded guilty in 2007 to federal charges of misbranding drugs and were ordered to pay $635 million. The Drug Enforcement Administration said in 2003 that the company’s “aggressive, excessive and inappropriate” marketing “very much exacerbated” abuse and criminal trafficking of OxyContin.

Purdue was a small New York City pharmaceutical firm when brothers Mortimer and Raymond Sackler, both psychiatrists, bought it in 1952. The spectacular success of OxyContin has generated nearly $35 billion in revenue over the last two decades and made the Sacklers one of the nation’s wealthiest families. Three generations of the family now help oversee Purdue and the Mundipharma associated foreign corporations.

Would have been perfect if Raymond was really Randolph.

https://cdn.meme.am/cache/instances/folder79/500x/56900079.jpg

 

[Henry Ford]

Martin Shkreli was just found guilty on three counts of securities fraud.

 

[St. Louis Bob]

Martin Shkreli was just found guilty on three counts of securities fraud.

He's being interviewed and still a cocky #####.  Apparently they are expecting a slap on the wrist. 

 

[Steve Tasker]

Gonna have to sell that Wu Tang album to pay the legal fees

 

[Henry Ford]

He's being interviewed and still a cocky #####.  Apparently they are expecting a slap on the wrist. 

Probably will be, but he still could get 15 years.

 

[squistion]

Shkreli on being convicted:

“This was a witch hunt of epic proportions,” he said. “They may have found some broomsticks.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/08/04/martin-shkreli-jury-enters-fifth-day-of-deliberations/?utm_term=.7cc3d6e387b1

 

[St. Louis Bob]

Probably will be, but he still could get 15 years.

I hope so.

 

[mquinnjr]

Martin Shkreli was just found guilty on three counts of securities fraud.

 

[RokNRole]

This guy is such a turd. You can just look at him and see what a greasy scumbag he is. He's like a young Ted Cruz.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

I'm not hoping for prison violence, just a steady stream of jail hijinks that makes his life even more miserable.

 

[RokNRole]

I'm not hoping for prison violence, just a steady stream of jail hijinks that makes his life even more miserable.

It's securities fraud. He will go to a minimum security resort. They may even let him take wu tang album with him

 

[Good Posting Judge]

It's securities fraud. He will go to a minimum security resort. They may even let him take wu tang album with him

Surely even a country club has a few rapscallions amongst their ranks.

 

[RokNRole]

Surely even a country club has a few rapscallions amongst their ranks.

I don't think hedge fund managers are known for physical violence. I don't hang in those circles so I don't really know. There may be a few badass bankers and stock brokers.

 

[OrtonToOlsen]

It's securities fraud. He will go to a minimum security resort. They may even let him take wu tang album with him

I have no idea to this day what those nine black fellows were singing about.  Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a great place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in  Alderson felt free.