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I'm not sure what their core claim here is. It appears as if they want to sell to Medicare customers and allow Medicare to pay for it. Medicare is a tough negot
by elmerfud 3y ago
I'm not sure what their core claim here is. It appears as if they want to sell to Medicare customers and allow Medicare to pay for it. Medicare is a tough negotiator and because it's a huge marketplace they can be. That negotiating strategy doesn't fundamentally strike me different than Walmarts and negotiating strategy. You don't like the price point Walmart is willing to put it on its shelf for and what you need to do to produce it at that price point you don't have to sell through Walmart.
It would be different if the government was forcing the company into a certain price point and a company could not say no.
- steego 3y agoWhat if they never expected to go anywhere with the lawsuit but used it to get publicity so they could test a change in political narrative or to see if they could recruit politicians during an active fundraising season to see who is willing to go on TV with David vs. Goliath talking points? I have no idea. I’m just spitballing.
- GauntletWizard 3y agoI think you're quite right; they never really expected this to go anywhere, but were testing the PR waters/trying to argue the case that government "meddling" was causing the price negotiations to stall. That said, I'm sympathetic to the argument that the government's strategy of "Most favored customer" status has not resulted in lower prices, but that the government's poor negotiations have allowed the pharmas to establish that number as a price floor. Drugs are sold for much less in other countries, but cannot be within the US.