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> When healthcare CEO Martin Shkreli increased the cost of his company’s antiparasitic drug by 5,455 percent (from $13.50 to $750 per pill) in 2015, many were o

> When healthcare CEO Martin Shkreli increased the cost of his company’s antiparasitic drug by 5,455 percent (from $13.50 to $750 per pill) in 2015, many were outraged. But Oshmyansky acted, because that’s what he does. I guess Shkreli was good for something after all.

snovv_crash 4y ago
The big mistake Shkreli made was giving 100% discounts to people who weren't insured, but charging full price to insurance companies.
- throwawaymaths 4y ago
  This is what big pharma companies do too.
  - ta988 4y ago
    It is even worse they negotiate "packages": "If you take our products A,B,C we do a 10% discount but if you take D and make sure that D' from our competitor is more expensive, we do a 15%." They do that with hospitals as well. Offering them free treatments that do good publicity against exclusivity.
  - snovv_crash 4y ago
    I should have added /s. The funny thing is that all the other companies do exactly what he did, but because he is an upstart somehow he ended up getting all the blame.
wyxuan 4y ago
Funny how shkreli fits into the story – he's led the criticized cost plus drugs for being a more expensive version of goodRx with inflated discounts [0]/ [0]https://martinshkreli.substack.com/p/mark-cubans-pharmacy-no-real-savings https://martinshkreli.substack.com/p/mark-cubans-pharmacy-no...
- iudqnolq 4y ago
  No, that article shows it's a cheaper version of goodRx. His complaint is they are sometimes the same price as the cheapest competitor, and that they overstate the discount by not comparing their price to the actual price you'd pay a competitor. But his first example, for example, is that they claim a 90% discount but are actually 60% of the goodRx price.
  - jerlam 4y ago
    Bigger discounts are better, of course. I think many people, including myself, have been paying through the nose with "prescription coverage" which costs more than goodRx or Cost Plus Drugs. The goodRx site is weird - it looks like a coupon site, where you go to other pharmacies and give them a coupon. I know this is exactly how goodRx works, but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence when you're buying something as serious as prescriptions. The Cost Plus Drugs site is extremely spartan, but it doesn't give off the same weird vibes as goodRx - there are less steps involved. You just order from Cost Plus Drugs and it shows up in the mail, no in-between third party involved.
    - iudqnolq 4y ago
      Behind the scenes, to the extent significant, the third party risk when it comes to drug quality is identical and low. Pharma charges goodRx less because it's market segmentation - they're assuming many goodRx users would otherwise just suffer without and thus generate no profit. Some people speculate goodRx subsidizes prices by selling data. I don't find their analysis convincing as they don't explain how goodRx has data meaningfully more valuable than the data pharma already buys from other sources like pharmacies.

snovv_crash 4y ago

The big mistake Shkreli made was giving 100% discounts to people who weren't insured, but charging full price to insurance companies.

throwawaymaths 4y ago
This is what big pharma companies do too.
- ta988 4y ago
  It is even worse they negotiate "packages": "If you take our products A,B,C we do a 10% discount but if you take D and make sure that D' from our competitor is more expensive, we do a 15%." They do that with hospitals as well. Offering them free treatments that do good publicity against exclusivity.
- snovv_crash 4y ago
  I should have added /s. The funny thing is that all the other companies do exactly what he did, but because he is an upstart somehow he ended up getting all the blame.

wyxuan 4y ago

Funny how shkreli fits into the story – he's led the criticized cost plus drugs for being a more expensive version of goodRx with inflated discounts [0]/ [0]https://martinshkreli.substack.com/p/mark-cubans-pharmacy-no-real-savings https://martinshkreli.substack.com/p/mark-cubans-pharmacy-no...

iudqnolq 4y ago
No, that article shows it's a cheaper version of goodRx. His complaint is they are sometimes the same price as the cheapest competitor, and that they overstate the discount by not comparing their price to the actual price you'd pay a competitor. But his first example, for example, is that they claim a 90% discount but are actually 60% of the goodRx price.
- jerlam 4y ago
  Bigger discounts are better, of course. I think many people, including myself, have been paying through the nose with "prescription coverage" which costs more than goodRx or Cost Plus Drugs. The goodRx site is weird - it looks like a coupon site, where you go to other pharmacies and give them a coupon. I know this is exactly how goodRx works, but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence when you're buying something as serious as prescriptions. The Cost Plus Drugs site is extremely spartan, but it doesn't give off the same weird vibes as goodRx - there are less steps involved. You just order from Cost Plus Drugs and it shows up in the mail, no in-between third party involved.
  - iudqnolq 4y ago
    Behind the scenes, to the extent significant, the third party risk when it comes to drug quality is identical and low. Pharma charges goodRx less because it's market segmentation - they're assuming many goodRx users would otherwise just suffer without and thus generate no profit. Some people speculate goodRx subsidizes prices by selling data. I don't find their analysis convincing as they don't explain how goodRx has data meaningfully more valuable than the data pharma already buys from other sources like pharmacies.