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If American consumers stop subsidizing health care R&D costs, what will happen to the R&D? Will it decrease? Will health care costs in other countries increase

by Buge 7y ago

If American consumers stop subsidizing health care R&D costs, what will happen to the R&D? Will it decrease? Will health care costs in other countries increase as they start to bear some of it?

wayoutthere 7y ago
I assume it will continue because the drug companies need products to sell. It's not like they're just going to close up shop, but it may be the end of windfall profits. The other problem right now is that it's not profitable to create drugs that actually cure anything. It's far more profitable to research drugs that help control chronic conditions (like diabetes, hypertension or Alzheimers) rather than drugs that can cure a condition outright. This is one part of why nobody researches things like antibiotics anymore.
- dreary_dugong 7y ago
  As stated in a thread above, while it is not directly profitable for drug companies to cure diseases, it is profitable for their insurance agency cohorts. The current system does not totally dis-incentivize cures.
  - wayoutthere 7y ago
    The problem is that those drugs never even make it into the pipeline because they don't get investment in the first place. The big drug companies aren't the ones actually developing new drugs; that's done by biotech startups. If a drug shows promise, big pharma buys the company and pays for stage 2+ clinical trials. A friend of mine works in pharmaceutical marketing, and the big revelation I got from him was that the marketing departments run the drug companies from the top to the bottom. If marketing doesn't see a billion dollar market for a new drug, it won't even be considered for clinical trials. The VC in biotech knows this, so they won't fund startups that don't have this potential. There was a HN thread on this recently in relation to antibiotics. [1] Antibiotics are a special case for their own reasons, but ultimately if the potential for insane windfalls isn't there, big pharma is not interested. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21782994 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21782994

by Buge 7y ago

If American consumers stop subsidizing health care R&D costs, what will happen to the R&D? Will it decrease? Will health care costs in other countries increase as they start to bear some of it?

wayoutthere 7y ago

I assume it will continue because the drug companies need products to sell. It's not like they're just going to close up shop, but it may be the end of windfall profits. The other problem right now is that it's not profitable to create drugs that actually cure anything. It's far more profitable to research drugs that help control chronic conditions (like diabetes, hypertension or Alzheimers) rather than drugs that can cure a condition outright. This is one part of why nobody researches things like antibiotics anymore.

dreary_dugong 7y ago
As stated in a thread above, while it is not directly profitable for drug companies to cure diseases, it is profitable for their insurance agency cohorts. The current system does not totally dis-incentivize cures.
- wayoutthere 7y ago
  The problem is that those drugs never even make it into the pipeline because they don't get investment in the first place. The big drug companies aren't the ones actually developing new drugs; that's done by biotech startups. If a drug shows promise, big pharma buys the company and pays for stage 2+ clinical trials. A friend of mine works in pharmaceutical marketing, and the big revelation I got from him was that the marketing departments run the drug companies from the top to the bottom. If marketing doesn't see a billion dollar market for a new drug, it won't even be considered for clinical trials. The VC in biotech knows this, so they won't fund startups that don't have this potential. There was a HN thread on this recently in relation to antibiotics. [1] Antibiotics are a special case for their own reasons, but ultimately if the potential for insane windfalls isn't there, big pharma is not interested. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21782994 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21782994