General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: this is the pill that cures Hepatitis C. This is that pill on big Pharma [View all]NBachers
(17,108 posts)so they could be first on the block to market it. Read the final paragraph in the link provided by Cali: http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/84000-hep-c-drug-only-1500
And then there's Gilead. It didn't even develop Harvoni itself; it made a business decision to pay $11 billion to buy the company that did so it could be first to market and reap the rewards, $26 billion worth. There is something obscene about that. A billion-dollar profit would have been a very respectable return on investment, but Gilead is getting much, much more than that, and all the rest of us are paying for it, one way or another, whether through higher insurance premiums, higher Medicaid costs, or like me, out of their own pockets, just so Gilead's stockholders can see their dividends double. If you buy Hepcinat from India, Gilead still makes a profit as part of its licensing arrangement, but it doesn't make the unholy profits the U.S. government allows it to get away with. And you save thousands of dollars, and you get cured of hepatitis C.
So your "This company invested billions of dollars developing this drug" scenario is invalid. They spent 11 billion to buy the company that developed Harvoni, and then used their inflated pill prices to pay off their investment.
So it's not diligent, science, research based expenses they're profiting off of. It's not science research medicine they're practicing. It's corporate political Pharma Bro Trump-style medicine. And it's indefensible.
Please read this and respond.