What would you pay for something that will save your life?
We are about to find out as hedge funds get into pharmaceutical companies.
Charge whatever the market will bear, put those who are the most needed in the squeeze means big bucks for the money lenders. Daraprim is the only drug that the One Percenters have corral,
It is time for a change!
We are about to find out as hedge funds get into pharmaceutical companies.
Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, OvernightNew York TimesThe One Percenters have found and endless source of money… drugs, but this time it is legal drugs.
By Andrew Pollack
September 20, 2015
Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.
The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?” said Dr. Judith Aberg, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She said the price increase could force hospitals to use “alternative therapies that may not have the same efficacy.”
Although some price increases have been caused by shortages, others have resulted from a business strategy of buying old neglected drugs and turning them into high-priced “specialty drugs.”
Charge whatever the market will bear, put those who are the most needed in the squeeze means big bucks for the money lenders. Daraprim is the only drug that the One Percenters have corral,
Cycloserine, a drug used to treat dangerous multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, was just increased in price to $10,800 for 30 pills from $500 after its acquisition by Rodelis Therapeutics. Scott Spencer, general manager of Rodelis, said the company needed to invest to make sure the supply of the drug remained reliable. He said the company provided the drug free to certain needy patients.Is this the new trend, squeezing the sick for their blood? How far will unleashed Capitalism go? At one time government was the fulcrum that kept Capitalism in check but not anymore. The rest of the world has reined in on the pharmaceutical companies but here in the U.S. pharmaceutical companies can charge whatever the market will bear.
In August, two members of Congress investigating generic drug price increases wrote to Valeant Pharmaceuticals after that company acquired two heart drugs, Isuprel and Nitropress, from Marathon Pharmaceuticals and promptly raised their prices by 525 percent and 212 percent respectively. Marathon had acquired the drugs from another company in 2013 and had quintupled their prices, according to the lawmakers, Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, and Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland.
Doxycycline, an antibiotic, went from $20 a bottle in October 2013 to $1,849 by April 2014, according to the two lawmakers.
It is time for a change!
More unintended consequences of the government taking control of 20% of the economy with Obamacare. Buried into the legislation that noon of the Democrats read before the vote were buyoffs of all sorts to parts of the medical community and in large measure to big Pharma. Did you ever question why the pharma companies supported legislation that was the opposite of free markets?
ReplyDeleteThis is in addition to the crushing of the younger generation that was a necessary offshoot of the socialistic nature of the bill. Both my children had decent, affordable private policies that were cancelled forcing them to buy Obamacare approved coverage at 4 times the costs with an eightfold increase in deductibles. I do not understand the mentality of growing government to intrude into all aspects of life.
Yes, heavy lobbying by the by big pharma companies did prevent ACA from buying pharmaceuticals on the open market. And that is an example of why corporate lobbying should be banned. Further more people like Mr. Shkreli who say that save a human life is should cost more than a $1000 see human life just as a commodity to maximize profits are without humanity.
ReplyDeleteYou and I are very privileged that when we worked we had health insurance coverage, but I now have hundreds of clients who work over 40 hours a week and did not have any health insurance, but now have coverage. I know people who have diabetes and could afford health insurance because the premiums would have been over $1500 a month and now are below $800.
Corporate taxes used to be a lot higher than they are now and personal income tax under President Eisenhower the top bracket was 92%. During his administration and for the next decade we had some of the largest growth in our history.
The high taxes from the 1950s were offset in large degree by deductions that benefited everyone but mostly those at the high end. JFK understood the problems with high taxes and I think he cut them even more than RWR. JEC found many ways to raise taxes but most through the poor man's tax of giving us heavy inflation. I needed a mortgage back then and was hit with 18% interest. The tax cuts of the 1980s gave us a nice period of growth.
ReplyDeleteWith Obamacare the cost of healthcare is going up for everyone. Even though I have 'coverage' at work I pay over $9K for my plan which gets worse every year. Yesterday I went to the doctor. This was a GP that I have used over the years but not for the past 2 years when we had a different plan. I am back with him now with my new coverage but my co-pay is double.
I think that coverage should be available for all but the current scheme eliminates competition and was designed to give the government control that they were happy to share with their supporters in the pharma and insurance industries.
This makes the case for revolution. This little money grubbing wimp should be on the firing line without a moments hesitation.
ReplyDelete