5 ms·
This is what I really wish the WHO would solve. Have a global fund that every country contributes to based on GDP and/or population. The WHO buys an new drugs f
by snarf21 6y ago
This is what I really wish the WHO would solve. Have a global fund that every country contributes to based on GDP and/or population. The WHO buys an new drugs from the drug companies and then sets up manufacturing and stockpiles. Then we can get rid of all this drug advertising and reduce the cost of health care. We can stop have the same drug be cheaper in Canada than it is in the US. The drug companies can coordinate with the WHO to develop drugs for the most needed conditions. We don't need a 12th ED drug but a shelf stable anti-venom might be needed globally.
If there are vaccines/shots we need globally, we can keep a certain percentage of flu or whatever around and ship to where they are needed. Instead each country has to keep their own stockpile with duplication of effort. In the US, we pay egg farms billions to produce eggs to be used for making flu vaccines for when actually need them but we pay for the farms year round so we have reserved supply. This is silly and there are easier ways to share the costs.
- HeadsUpHigh 6y agoGovernment funding on products never produces cheap products. The problem with drug prices is the cost of dealing with FDA regulations, not the free market. Insulin has no reason to be that expensive if it wasn't for the clusterfuck of IP protection laws that interact with each other and lock basic products out.
- m12k 6y agoEven better, let WHO shoulder the cost of trialing promising candidate drugs. The current system means every successful drug needs to also shoulder the cost of developing and (especially) trialing nine other drugs that didn't make it. Basically pharma companies currently work like hedge funds who expect most of their startups to fail but expect to make the money back on a single unicorn from each batch. IMO it would be a much healthier ecosystem if smaller labs could just do the development part.