Pharma Execs Don't Know Why Anyone Is Upset by a $94,500 Miracle Cure

loyek590 said:
if you don't like it, let the government do all the research and developement
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I agree that the R&D is very costly and the companies should be rewarded for their brilliance. But $94,000 for 12 weeks? Seriously?

Read the article carefully

"...The promise of a cure, however, doesn’t come cheap. After Sovaldi received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December 2013, Gilead announced the drug would cost $84,000 for a 12-week course, or exactly $1,000 a pill. That’s more than double what Pharmasset, the biotech company that developed an early experimental version of the drug, initially said it planned to charge—until Gilead bought Pharmasset in 2011...."
 
R&D is expensive. But when a potential life saving cure is available like that, the government should reimburse the drug company for the cost of the R&D of the drug and mandate the price of the drug to something people can afford.

I'm not one for price control or government dictating to private companies, but in the case where a drug can save someone's life by providing a permanent cure, something needs to be done.
 
nitro said:
Notice that Anthem has been sued over several infractions, in addition to the part in the story above:
"Anthem Blue Cross Sued For Denying Hospital Stay Benefits To Incapacitated LA Sheriff’s Sergeant"
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/04/15/anthem-blue-cross-sued-for-denying-hospital-stay-benefits-to-incapacitated-la-sheriffs-sergeant/
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"Denying their claim makes the plaintiffs responsible for medical expenses through Dec. 3 in a sum of $1.05 million and have continued to incur daily expenses in the sum of approximately $6,500 since Dec. 3"

This would bankrupt most people.
 
Tsing Tao said:
R&D is expensive. But when a potential life saving cure is available like that, the government should reimburse the drug company for the cost of the R&D of the drug and mandate the price of the drug to something people can afford.

I'm not one for price control or government dictating to private companies, but in the case where a drug can save someone's life by providing a permanent cure, something needs to be done.
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Oh my God. Who hacked Tsing's account??

I'm sure pharma would be tripping over themselves to get a piece of that. What if their research results in a loser? You want the govt (taxpayers) to reimburse that?
 
Arnie said:
Oh my God. Who hacked Tsing's account??

I'm sure pharma would be tripping over themselves to get a piece of that. What if their research results in a loser? You want the govt (taxpayers) to reimburse that?
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What do you do in the case where corporations take government funded research and try to use it to make profits off tax-funded research the way Celera did with the Human Genome Project? Worse, what do you do when they want to patent genes from random human beings?

Or what about the research that was done by the government with tax dollars to invent the computer, that was then taken free by corporations to develop modern microprocessors? Or what about the internet that started out as a government sponsored project with tax dollars and now corporations make huge amounts of money from it? Should I continue?
 
nitro said:
What do you do in the case where corporations take government funded research and try to use it to make profits off tax-funded research the way Celera did with the Human Genome Project? Worse, what do you do when they want to patent genes from random human beings?

Or what about the research that was done by the government with tax dollars to invent the computer, that was then taken free by corporations to develop modern microprocessors? Or what about the internet that started out as a government sponsored project with tax dollars and now corporations make huge amounts of money from it? Should I continue?
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I agree, the problem is the government. Who knows how much better the internet would be now if they hadn't gotten involved.
 
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