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You just gestured vaguely about it being expensive and "incentives". I would like to know why you believe the private sector is uniquely equipped to "bring drug
by thrance 1y ago
You just gestured vaguely about it being expensive and "incentives". I would like to know why you believe the private sector is uniquely equipped to "bring drugs to the market" and why you think having middlemen is more efficient than not having them.
- tptacek 1y agoNo, I simply pointed out that it costs billions to bring a drug to market --- before marketing --- and that you can't plausibly recoup those expenses for a cost-plus priced product. Do you have a response to that? I'm not interested in expanding the argument.
- thrance 1y agoI don't think we need to recoup those expenses. Fund R&D with public money, once a drug is developed and tested it becomes a common good and should pay for itself with the gain of productivity obtained from a healthier population.
- tptacek 1y agoAgain: I'm really not interested in litigating how drug production would function under an entirely different economic system, only in pointing out an issue with the logic you used in critiquing this system.
- thrance 1y agoIt's becoming increasingly difficult to understand what you're even arguing about. My original comment was: > Which is why there should be no patents in healthcare. Most research is already publicly-funded, production and distribution should be too. We could drown in cheap medicine, instead we artificially increase the prices by 5000% to fatten the pockets of already super-wealthy parasites. If a company sells a pill for $100 that cost them $2 to manufacture, that's a 5000% markup. Indeed, they would need to recoup R&D expenditures, but I am arguing for a system where we don't need to, because R&D is paid for by the state, and we don't need to turn a profit once the product has been developed. Where's the logic flaw?
- tptacek 1y agoNo, it's obviously not a "5000%" markup, because the pharma company doesn't just pay its COGS.
- thrance 1y agoOK, so you're just arguing about a technicality. Why waste so much of our time? Why not engage with the core of my comment and instead nitpick an obvious hyperbole? What can you possibly gain this way?
- tptacek 1y agoYour entire premise is invalid. You have a faulty understanding of the cost structure of drug production. That's not a "technicality".
- thrance 1y agoWhat an unpleasant conversation, I still have no idea what you're trying to say. It doesn't help that you're not adding anything to it. Europeans get some drugs for 50x cheaper than Americans because of collective bargaining. Isn't that definite proof there is unnecessary profiteering in the final price?
- tptacek 1y agoEuropeans also get drugs for 50x cheaper because American premiums are subsidizing them.