5 ms·

One thing that I'd like to know is if the profit margin is the same for one of these one time treatments as a repeat treatment. If we assume that these things

by awongh 8y ago

One thing that I'd like to know is if the profit margin is the same for one of these one time treatments as a repeat treatment. If we assume that these things must be produced within a market system, it seems like the real moral question isn't what the dollar amount is, (since it logically follows that the cost to produce it must increase with the total revenue it's going to produce) but it would seem troublesome to say that we only produce treatments that have %20 profit because our shareholders expect blah blah, etc. etc. If they already have the treatment and don't want to sell it because they can't price it profitably enough that seems pretty wrong to me. Not sure what the solution is though. I see how all the incentives could be aligned this way. And the article seems to hint that this is already the case.

mruts 8y ago
I’m not that well versed in gene therapy, but for pharmaceuticals the calculus is as follows: It takes billions of dollars and decades for a new drug to be put on the market. In addition to the cost, there’s the risk of the FDA not approving it. Once approved, the drug can essentially be produced for free. The government gives the company the right to charge whatever they want for a set number of years until the patent expires (including much of the research time). After that period, competition is allowed in. It seems clear to me that costs and profits need to come from somewhere. But I wonder if there is a better system than just making each pill super expensive for a long period of time.
bluGill 8y ago
Lower than you might think. Not only do you need to account for all the costs of developing that treatment, you also need to account for the costs to looking at a treatment that after some amount of study turns out not to work. This latter can be very expensive, and worse is an unknown cost, sometimes you are lucky and a few treatments work out, while other times you hit an unlucky streak and try a bunch of treatments that don't work out.
- awongh 8y ago
  i theorize it isn’t lower than i think because the article hints that companies not selling the product at what the market will bear, and instead would rather price it to a specific margin. to me this is a special industry in that, if your gamble of profitability doesn’t pay off for something that already has sunk cost, don’t take it off the market, just sell it for whatever price the market will bear. that’s your moral responsibility.... not sure what the argument against that would be
  - bluGill 8y ago
    I've read your reply 3 times, I can't figure out what you mean.

by awongh 8y ago

mruts 8y ago

I’m not that well versed in gene therapy, but for pharmaceuticals the calculus is as follows: It takes billions of dollars and decades for a new drug to be put on the market. In addition to the cost, there’s the risk of the FDA not approving it. Once approved, the drug can essentially be produced for free. The government gives the company the right to charge whatever they want for a set number of years until the patent expires (including much of the research time). After that period, competition is allowed in. It seems clear to me that costs and profits need to come from somewhere. But I wonder if there is a better system than just making each pill super expensive for a long period of time.

bluGill 8y ago

Lower than you might think. Not only do you need to account for all the costs of developing that treatment, you also need to account for the costs to looking at a treatment that after some amount of study turns out not to work. This latter can be very expensive, and worse is an unknown cost, sometimes you are lucky and a few treatments work out, while other times you hit an unlucky streak and try a bunch of treatments that don't work out.

awongh 8y ago
i theorize it isn’t lower than i think because the article hints that companies not selling the product at what the market will bear, and instead would rather price it to a specific margin. to me this is a special industry in that, if your gamble of profitability doesn’t pay off for something that already has sunk cost, don’t take it off the market, just sell it for whatever price the market will bear. that’s your moral responsibility.... not sure what the argument against that would be
- bluGill 8y ago
  I've read your reply 3 times, I can't figure out what you mean.