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> Putting caps on prices without doing something about research costs is just going to kill research. All the big pharma companies are laying off scientist ever
by mft_ 9y ago
> Putting caps on prices without doing something about research costs is just going to kill research. All the big pharma companies are laying off scientist every week because even with uncapped prices the returns are so low that it is not worth spending the money to develop new drugs.
European countries pay much lower prices (although still relatively high vs. an average salary) vs. the US. The dirty secret is that the US is generally milked by pharma, because it can be. Until the US gets its act together and fixes this --and how likely is that, with the essentially broken system of government?-- it will continue.
> A more productive approach might be to look into why drug development has become so expensive. It is certainly not because pharma companies have suddenly become greedier.
It's expensive because a) it's a long and hard slog, and b) the regulators set very high standards. You can't affect a), and there is a strong disincentive for regulators to change b): in essence, regulators exist to prevent bad things happening, so are only incentivised to ever-tighten regulations.
- adventured 9y ago> European countries pay much lower prices To be fair, European big pharma also lives off the US market to plump their margins. That subsidizes their ability to charge lower prices in Europe and elsewhere. They also constantly poach cutting edge biotech & pharma companies out of the US to keep their stables full, such as AveXis, Genzyme, Genentech, etc. Without constantly buying up elite US biotech, Europe would have practically no biotech industry at all. The US is by far the world's largest drug market. It's heaven for Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche, AstraZeneca, et al. The US drug market is twice the size of the EU drug market, with ~37% fewer people.
- mft_ 9y ago> To be fair, European big pharma also lives off the US market to plump their margins. ...as I said in my very next sentence? :) > They also constantly poach cutting edge biotech & pharma companies out of the US to keep their stables full, such as AveXis, Genzyme, Genentech, etc. Without constantly buying up elite US biotech, Europe would have practically no biotech industry at all. Can I ask, what's the problem with this? All of the companies you refer to are pretty-much global - they have a presence in many countries, including the US, and by being publicly traded, ownership isn't especially linked to their country of origin. AZ (for example) being based in the UK means little for the UK, apart from that being where it pays some tax, and employs some people in its head office. To take one of your examples, Roche (Swiss) bought Genentech (US), and still maintains the same huge presence in SF, still employs people in SF, still pays taxes there. And presumably the previous owners of Genentech stock did nicely out of this?
- danieltillett 9y agoIt is only a long hard slog because of the regulators. You are 100% right that the problem all comes back to regulation. What is missing from the drug development area is any cost benefit analysis. Regulations are made as if there is no cost to the ever tightening and restrictive regulations.