EpiPen story continues

[cytg111]

Then you should put your own capital in play and develop/sell your own delivery system to provide that $2 of medicine and only accept the "correct" amount of profit for it. Evidently since you think $608 is way too high for "moral reasons" you'll be charging a lot less. And donating all your profits to charity or some shit.

We'll wait right here for you to start writing checks to fund this project on behalf of bettering your fellow man and preventing such callous price gouging.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28212223

 

[glenn1]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28212223

And your point is? Are you one of those folks who think that government regulation is intended to hold down industry profits rather than ensuring them? This is the flip side of the FDA approval process, most of the time you don't notice or complain about the profit margins but in this case the item in question got turned into a proxy for an argument about how much medical services "should" cost. If Mylan had only tripled the cost instead of quintupling it then we wouldn't even have a thread about it. And the willingness to want to lead a lynch mob every time a drug maker puts out a product with an "unfair" price is a big reason why they don't bother to research new antibiotics anymore. Why should they when some Democratic Senator is going to demonize them for charging prices sufficient to recoup R&D costs plus make a profit?

 

[cytg111]

And your point is? Are you one of those folks who think that government regulation is intended to hold down industry profits rather than ensuring them? This is the flip side of the FDA approval process, most of the time you don't notice or complain about the profit margins but in this case the item in question got turned into a proxy for an argument about how much medical services "should" cost. If Mylan had only tripled the cost instead of quintupling it then we wouldn't even have a thread about it. And the willingness to want to lead a lynch mob every time a drug maker puts out a product with an "unfair" price is a big reason why they don't bother to research new antibiotics anymore. Why should they when some Democratic Senator is going to demonize them for charging prices sufficient to recoup R&D costs plus make a profit?

Yes, my point is that *that* big a profit off of common folk and their medical needs is in fact just another kind of taxation that just happens to not go to your government pockets (and the inherent feedback loop that it is) but go to shareholders and other riches to get richer.
Big Pharma, IMO, is a national consideration right next to military and intelligence.

 

[Darwin333]

And your point is? Are you one of those folks who think that government regulation is intended to hold down industry profits rather than ensuring them? This is the flip side of the FDA approval process, most of the time you don't notice or complain about the profit margins but in this case the item in question got turned into a proxy for an argument about how much medical services "should" cost. If Mylan had only tripled the cost instead of quintupling it then we wouldn't even have a thread about it. And the willingness to want to lead a lynch mob every time a drug maker puts out a product with an "unfair" price is a big reason why they don't bother to research new antibiotics anymore. Why should they when some Democratic Senator is going to demonize them for charging prices sufficient to recoup R&D costs plus make a profit?

The R&D on EpiPen has LONG been recouped. As I pointed out, there is definitive proof that they are ripping us off by the fact that they are going to release their own generic later this year at half the price they are currently selling their name brand version.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

And your point is? Are you one of those folks who think that government regulation is intended to hold down industry profits rather than ensuring them? This is the flip side of the FDA approval process, most of the time you don't notice or complain about the profit margins but in this case the item in question got turned into a proxy for an argument about how much medical services "should" cost. If Mylan had only tripled the cost instead of quintupling it then we wouldn't even have a thread about it. And the willingness to want to lead a lynch mob every time a drug maker puts out a product with an "unfair" price is a big reason why they don't bother to research new antibiotics anymore. Why should they when some Democratic Senator is going to demonize them for charging prices sufficient to recoup R&D costs plus make a profit?

The FDA approval process is absurdly expensive and time-consuming, but if it was really that bad then by definition these companies would not rake in such amazing profits. Corporations getting their feelies hurt has nothing to do with lack of research; monopolies are protectionist and anti-competitive by nature. The way the pharmaceutical industry currently operates is that the mega corporations sit on a massive fleet of lawyers to protect current IP, and wait for a hit drug to be developed by a smaller lab before buying them up. Mylan's product is not remotely novel or expensive to design, as has been explained to you before, they're engaging in legal warfare over competition because it's a more profitable avenue than innovation. As someone that seems to consider themselves a free-market conservative, you should be able to appreciate that attacking Mylan is hardly just an attack on capitalism, it's an attack on crony capitalism/corporatism.

 

[glenn1]

The FDA approval process is absurdly expensive and time-consuming, but if it was really that bad then by definition these companies would not rake in such amazing profits. Corporations getting their feelies hurt has nothing to do with lack of research; monopolies are protectionist and anti-competitive by nature. The way the pharmaceutical industry currently operates is that the mega corporations sit on a massive fleet of lawyers to protect current IP, and wait for a hit drug to be developed by a smaller lab before buying them up. Mylan's product is not remotely novel or expensive to design, as has been explained to you before, they're engaging in legal warfare over competition because it's a more profitable avenue than innovation. As someone that seems to consider themselves a free-market conservative, you should be able to appreciate that attacking Mylan is hardly just an attack on capitalism, it's an attack on crony capitalism/corporatism.

There's 3 problems in play that you've identified. One is a patent system that hasn't been modernized and doesn't have a sufficient statutory legal framework to properly analyze and award patents given today's technology. Second is how do we logically fund and/or subsidize R&D efforts. Third is what you see as being "crony capitalism" and I simply see as market forces working basically as intended. Mylan attempted to leverage their pricing power to an extent where it caused them reputation damage, entry of competitors, and increased scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators. I'm open to changing the framework for how drugs receive patent protection and the companies make back their costs and profit margins, but it needs to be done in a transparent and predictable fashion rather than in a reactionary "OMG Mylan is being soooo greedy" fashion after the fact like you seem to be pushing for.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

There's 3 problems in play that you've identified. One is a patent system that hasn't been modernized and doesn't have a sufficient statutory legal framework to properly analyze and award patents given today's technology. Second is how do we logically fund and/or subsidize R&D efforts. Third is what you see as being "crony capitalism" and I simply see as market forces working basically as intended. Mylan attempted to leverage their pricing power to an extent where it caused them reputation damage, entry of competitors, and increased scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators. I'm open to changing the framework for how drugs receive patent protection and the companies make back their costs and profit margins, but it needs to be done in a transparent and predictable fashion rather than in a reactionary "OMG Mylan is being soooo greedy" fashion after the fact like you seem to be pushing for.

I don't disagree with that at all, I don't want class action lawsuits to be the solution for many reasons. It encourages favoritism, closer relationships between government and business, and in practice businesses usually pay far less in lawsuits than the damage they caused regardless. Shortening patent duration, setting some kind of cap at which point competitors are allowed to manufacture generics royalty-free, opening the market to foreign manufacturers, and streamlining the quality control standards for established medicines are the solutions I'd like to see.

That being said, if it takes a scapegoat to create a movement in the right direction, I don't really care who gets the guillotine either.