3 ms·
> Almost got it right: Drugs elsewhere are cheaper and largely subsidized by USA citizens. * Correction, by U.S. government (through law). > Those drugs cost
by tertius 9y ago
> Almost got it right: Drugs elsewhere are cheaper and largely subsidized by USA citizens.
* Correction, by U.S. government (through law).
> Those drugs cost a fortune to make and the companies make their money in USA.
Yes R&D is expensive, but pharma is extremely profitable. Here in the U.S. and abroad.
- tryingagainbro 9y agoThe difference in pricing is STAGGERING. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/New-Hepatitis-C-drug-99-cheaper-in-India/articleshow/39719323.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/New-Hepatitis-C-dru... The blockbuster hepatitis C drug will cost about $900 (around Rs 54,000) in India for a 12-week course of treatment. That would be a fraction of the $84,000 (over Rs 50 lakh) price tag for the same treatment in US. I'm sure that they wouldn't be that profitable if USA paid $900 for that drug, especially the first few years. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/business/sales-of-sovaldi-new-gilead-hepatitis-c-drug-soar-to-10-3-billion.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/business/sales-of-sovaldi... 140,000 patients in USA and going to 250,000
- tertius 9y agoDrugs are cheapest in India. Let's normalize. I.e. far end of the pricing bell curve. But the answer is still, yes, there is profitability. Just not as much as with the hyper inflated prices in the US. In short: Does the extreme cost for drugs in the US cause groundbreaking research to benefit the whole world? No, same results could be had with way less profit. Money to fund moonshot research is still important though.
- pkaye 9y agoGiven the lower labor costs and people consider drugs to be so profitable, I don't know why other countries don't do as much research and drug development. Just a few countries carry the lion share of this effort.
- refurb 9y agoThat would be my response. If someone else can improve R&D and lower the cost of drugs, they are more than welcome to. Interestingly, I haven't seen any takers.
- tertius 9y agoThis is constantly done... Find some new discoveries in basic science. Get finding. Develop a drug. Test and redevelop. Market. Profit.
- refurb 9y agoBased on lowering the costs of R&D? I've yet to see it.
- tertius 9y agoYes, many people bring their work out of academia and have much lower cost of R&D because they don't have to pay for any of the pre-work. Reagents are getting cheaper and better as well. Yesteryears low hanging fruit costs the same as today's low hanging fruit. They are harder to solve though. And no, I'm not saying everyone single biotech startup is like this or every single researcher does this. And yes many fail, but that's the cost of doing business and it's something that makes things progress.
- tertius 9y agoDrug development is expensive.
- refurb 9y agopharma is extremely profitable That's survivorship bias. Yes, the successful pharma companies are quite profitable, but there are 10 failed companies for every successful one. I remember reading a paper that said the overall returns for the industry are either single digit or negative.
- tertius 9y agoThis is business in general. The big ones buy up the small generic producers and single new drug companies and get slightly bigger. The ones who can't pass trials fail. That's business, especially in R&D.