3 ms·

> The only "innovation" of capitalism is intermediation, otherwise called "rent-seeking". One of the big lies Big Pharma tells you is that R&D is expensive but

> The only "innovation" of capitalism is intermediation, otherwise called "rent-seeking". One of the big lies Big Pharma tells you is that R&D is expensive but the actual R&D is done primarily by government funding and research at colleges. Big Pharma spends WAAY more on marketing. Yet when shit hit the fan with a global pandemic, it was US Pharma companies that were both able to develop and produce and distribute at scale effective vaccines in a very short amount of time.

jmyeet 3y ago
This actually makes my point. mRNA vaccines were researched in academic institutions for decades. The Covid 19 vaccines just took those vaccines and ran them through clinical trials. This isn't hard to verify. Just this week researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work on mRNA vaccines. Did they work for Pfizer? Johnson and Johnson? Some other company? Or was it an academic institution?
- twoodfin 3y ago
  “The Covid 19 vaccines just took those vaccines and ran them through clinical trials.” “Just” that, and figuring out manufacturing and distribution at massive scale. Combined that’s billions.
- superbatfish 3y ago
  Gotta love the word “just” in that first paragraph. The majority of the research money behind most (if not all) drugs, is spent well after academia’s contribution. Clinical trials are very costly, they usually fail, and yet they’re quite important!
  - jmyeet 3y ago
    > The majority of the research money behind most (if not all) drugs, is spent well after academia’s contribution [citation needed] Just look at the timeline for Covid 19 [1] and how late in the piece you get before a company like Moderna gets involved. What huge investment was made by Big Pharma here? Even this was funded by Operation Warp Speed, another $10 billion in Federal money. [1]: https://covid19.nih.gov/nih-strategic-response-covid-19/decades-making-mrna-covid-19-vaccines https://covid19.nih.gov/nih-strategic-response-covid-19/deca...
    - twoodfin 3y ago
      Well, for one, if Moderna et al didn’t actually provide much value above the public research, why didn’t the Chinese quickly create their own highly effective mRNA vaccines? Building the platform to turn research into practical drugs is hard, not to mention expensive and hardly guaranteed to succeed.

jmyeet 3y ago

This actually makes my point. mRNA vaccines were researched in academic institutions for decades. The Covid 19 vaccines just took those vaccines and ran them through clinical trials. This isn't hard to verify. Just this week researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work on mRNA vaccines. Did they work for Pfizer? Johnson and Johnson? Some other company? Or was it an academic institution?

twoodfin 3y ago
“The Covid 19 vaccines just took those vaccines and ran them through clinical trials.” “Just” that, and figuring out manufacturing and distribution at massive scale. Combined that’s billions.
superbatfish 3y ago
Gotta love the word “just” in that first paragraph. The majority of the research money behind most (if not all) drugs, is spent well after academia’s contribution. Clinical trials are very costly, they usually fail, and yet they’re quite important!
- jmyeet 3y ago
  > The majority of the research money behind most (if not all) drugs, is spent well after academia’s contribution [citation needed] Just look at the timeline for Covid 19 [1] and how late in the piece you get before a company like Moderna gets involved. What huge investment was made by Big Pharma here? Even this was funded by Operation Warp Speed, another $10 billion in Federal money. [1]: https://covid19.nih.gov/nih-strategic-response-covid-19/decades-making-mrna-covid-19-vaccines https://covid19.nih.gov/nih-strategic-response-covid-19/deca...
  - twoodfin 3y ago
    Well, for one, if Moderna et al didn’t actually provide much value above the public research, why didn’t the Chinese quickly create their own highly effective mRNA vaccines? Building the platform to turn research into practical drugs is hard, not to mention expensive and hardly guaranteed to succeed.