How Big Pharma distorts the costs of developing new drugs

[Snoutport]

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-hiltzik-20110403,0,788500.column

An interesting take on the drug companies.

[drm604]

1. K&R

Very important information for the health care debate.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. But they're *BARELY* making a profit! Boo, hoo!

It's the PROFITS, stupid.

I honestly don't care how much their expenses are or aren't, it's how much PROFIT they're making from SICK people whose other "choice" is to SUFFER AND DIE.

IMO, they're not "entitled" to whatever price the market is willing to bear, because the market isn't free.

[Lasher]

3. They argue against the reimportation of drugs from Canada,

saying that they need to recover the high costs of research. This completely misses the point. US consumers are subsidizing those in other countries and that's wrong. If they need to recover costs, let them do it equally across the market.

[Snoutport]

5. i agree!

[ThomCat]

4. Nobody should be the least big surprised.

Big Pharma depends upon PUBLIC money to fund a hell of a lot of their R&D.

WE pay for much of that research through public grants, and then the results are given to the drug companies for them to turn into overpaid commercial products. But the government never claims any ownership share of those drugs based on the tax money that paid for the research.

By right, a share of the profits from each and every drug that came from public grant research should go back to our government to help pay for the public good.

But capitalism seems to mean that the public pays the costs, but corporations keep the profits. Socialize the risks and costs, privatize the rewards. x(

In a system like that, they have ever incentive to exaggerate the supposed cost to develop drugs, and then claim that they are the ones supposedly paying it all by themselves.

:(

[Hannah Bell]

6. kr