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Another Pharma Company Recaptures a Generic Medication
Applehu Akbar writes: Daraprim, currently used as a niche AIDS medication, was developed and patented by Glaxo (now GlaxoSmithKlein) decades ago. Though Glaxo's patent has long since expired, a startup called Turing Pharmaceuticals has been the latest pharma company to 'recapture' a generic by using legal trickery to gain exclusive rights to sell it in the US. Though Turing has just marketing rights, not a patent, on Daraprim, it takes advantage of pharma-pushed laws that forbid Americans from shopping around on the world market for prescriptions. Not long ago, Google was fined half a billion dollars by the FDA for allowing perfectly legal Canadian pharmacies to advertise on its site. So now that Turing has a lock on Daraprim, it has raised the price from $13.50 a pill to $750. In 2009 another small pharma company inveigled an exclusive on the longstanding generic gout medication colchicine from the FDA, effectively rebranding the unmodified generic so they could raise its price by a similar percentage.
Or go to Mexico. Or any other civilized country.
Or perhaps, hammer your hapless elected representative to allow for 'free trade' in pharmaceuticals. Remember that concept? The world is your oyster. It's time that gobalization benefited the majority of the population for a change.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
People and companies that do this sort of predatory business are truly Scum of the Earth.
I don't care how legal it is, this is just pure scumbaggery at its absolute worst.
"I don't care if you die, I need to make a profit!"
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
No sir "Just ship it."
I don't care if all three tests say its contaminated with salmonella.
We "desperately at least need to turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money."
Money above all!
"My chemists and I deeply regret the fatal results, but there was no error in the manufacture of the product. We have been supplying a legitimate professional demand and not once could have foreseen the unlooked-for results. I do not feel that there was any responsibility on our part."
We can regulate ourselves the government doesn't need to check anything!
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Corporate profits.
In case you haven't noticed, American politicians are more than willing to entrench corporate profits into law.
When pharma buys a law, you can make damned sure it's only pharma who benefits. Likewise, when the copyright cartel buys a law, it's only a good thing for them.
Basically when corporations buy laws, they write it, give themselves exemptions and loopholes so they control the outcomes ... it's a stacked deck, by a corrupt process which says the more money you have the more access to "democracy" you have.
Me, I think shit like this is pretty much demonstrating how the US has sold the farm for a couple of magic beans in the form of "intellectual property". Free markets? Who wants one of those when you can guarantee corporate profits and not have to work for it?
I hope this CEO gets mauled by bears.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
There are no generic manufacturers for Daraprim because of the low volumes sold. This startup bought the exclusive right to sell the drug in the USA, which is why they can jack up the price.
Other countries still sell it for low prices. The cost of the drug in Canada, or the UK, or Mexico (if you trust their pharmacies) make a trip out of the country worthwhile.
Or, it just may be that "free markets" don't exist, have never existed and cannot exist, and this is just a snapshot of what late-stage capitalism looks like.
When it's dog eat dog, the big dog eats and sick dogs die.
LISTEN CAREFULLY: There is no "free market" solution to health care costs. Not drugs, not hospitals, not doctors. How would you feel if you lived in a small town and the doctor came out to your house to see to your sick child and you were told, "You're child won't live the night without this drug. I've got exclusive rights to the drug and even though it costs me $0.25 to make, I'm going to charge you $100,000 because it's a matter of supply and demand and your dying daughter has just increased your demand."
There is no "free market" solution to health care costs because sick people are vulnerable. Their families are vulnerable. And people with the last name, "Inc" will gladly throw a baby off a bridge for a dollar.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Your comment is the real meat of this story. All outlets are being lazy and stupid by making the story all about this one unethical businesskid.
I'm not sure if I'd call them lazy and stupid.
If you want to rally people to a cause there's nothing better than an unrepentant entitled asshole nominating himself as the villain.
I stole this Sig
Now a good trick is to convince doctors to not prescribe this drug if needed, but prescribe other drugs that may be effective, or even recommend a summer vacation to Canada. Part of the problem is that doctors are too far removed from costs, and they'll prescribe a drug without realizing the economic impact; even if patients can afford it because of insurance, it raises costs of drugs overall thus health costs continue to rise.
The problem with the US health "system" is that it even relatively wealthy patients are at risk of bankruptcy paying for it. Just bite the 'socialist" bullet and introduce a sane UHC system like most other western nations did 30-40yrs ago. Also "the invisible hand" == "government regulation", by that I mean even your "frictionless free enterprise" cannot exist without some form of property law.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
There's another good reason why there's no free market in health care: It's too hard to comparison shop.
Ever get a bad Twinkie? You know, one of the Generic brands that just isn't very good? Maybe you tried two or three brands before you found one you like better than Twinkies. Me, I like the Safeway brand better than the Hostess one.
Now, try doing that for a heart transplant. See, you don't have enough information. It takes one taste to know a bad Twinkie and you're out $3 bucks for a pack of 'em. It takes 8 years to know what goes into a heart transplant and you're probably only gonna ever have the one.
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Incorrect. If brand-name manufacturers had this sort of power over generic drug approval, then there would be no generic drugs. The people who are saying that they can withhold consent to having their drugs used in bioequivalency trials are doing so based on a court case that never went to trial, about a company (mis)using REMS (a restriction placed by the FDA on certain dangerous drugs) to keep other companies from having their product. Daraprim is not a REMS drug AFAICT.
The real reason why there are no generic versions of Daraprim is because creating one and getting one approved costs a lot of money. When Glaxo was still selling the drug at a relatively low price, there was no incentive to make a generic because said generic couldn't be competitive. Now that Turing has marked the price up, a generic is far more feasible, but it will still take a considerable amount of time before one gets on the market. And even then, it might not be worth the risk that Turing will just lower the price and undercut any would-be competitors.
Rob
I live in a country with socialized medicine ... I agree with you completely.
I think any system which allows some douchebag corporation to buy the rights to a drug and jack the price up by that much is inherently flawed.
And I believe a government in which industry can buy themselves laws which suit their own purposes is doomed to fail, and is likely in the middle of failing.
America has been coopted by corporate interests. And there are way too many politicians telling us this is the way forward.
Buying a drug so you can make it artificially scarce and jack up the prices by that much? That's not a "free market" ... that's a system which is so utterly broken as to be scary.
The modern form of "capitalism" is pretty much a cancer on the world. It's nothing but greedy douchbags with politicians in their back pocket giving them laws which allow them to manipulate the system as they see fit.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Or, it just may be that "free markets" don't exist, have never existed and cannot exist, and this is just a snapshot of what late-stage capitalism looks like.
Oh dear. It's too bad that no "progressives" have had any power since 2009.
Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli defends HIV drugs price hike
What a sack of shit he is.
This particular evil was perpetrated by a small startup and a corrupt politicians who are bribed to pass laws written by big pharma, and exploited by pharma of all sizes.
He started rich. He would have more money now if he had simply invested it in an index fund. Even by taking advantage of federal bankruptcy laws, his ROI is slightly worse than someone blindly putting money into their 401K.
He's just a regular fucking idiot who has managed not to blow the fortune he inherited.
It turns out having a shit ton of money gives you such a huge advantage that even a fuckface like Trump can't screw up.
I agree with everything with the exception of your conclusion, which is erroneous because you're trying to spin the facts to suit your ideology.
The correct conclusion is that less corporate control over government is the solution.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
...and this problem stops. Immediately. The pharmaceutical grifters wouldn't have a clue as to how to operate in an unprotected, global, competitive environment.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.