That Guy Who Price-Gouged AIDS Patients Did It to Kids with Kidney Disease

[Martinus]

Yeah, it is fairly idiotic. For example, I remember some people being charged in Poland with directly importing a drug (without a license to do so) for private use when the national healthcare system ran out of it.

Generally, I think that in terms of patents and IP protection, we should just do away with territorial licensing. Any license or right should be global.

[Fate]

He should be able to charge whatever he wants for the drug. If the price is too high then he'll get competition. He is right - there's shit in toxoplasmosis drug research because the market is nonexistent. If it's lucrative you'll get companies developing alternatives that are more efficacious or have less side effects.

Anyway, daraprim isn't necessary to treat toxoplasmosis in HIV/AIDS patients. There is already a cheap and equally efficacious alternative called Bactrim (available for $4/month) but the outrage-journalism complex always needs to be upset at something. No one would ever have to pay $750/pill in the real world. Those calling for a lynching - looking at you Marty - should really be ashamed of themselves.

[Fate]

Ugh. I really hate how this is going to put a squeeze on the pharma industry in general (as the story has always been that prices are too high and this is now a perfect example for hysterics) and the bastard didn't even have the guts to stay with his ridiculous move.

Poor pharma industry. 

I know nothing of the details of its workings but I am pretty sure it requires a lot of effort, learning, brains, and equipment to do pharma research. There have to be dividents, otherwise those people would leave their beneficial roles and careers and switch to something that just leeches on society. Might even sunk as low as becoming lawyers.

Actually, lawyers' fees are a significant part of big pharma costs. 

We should take to twitter and facebook and shame lawyers into lowering their fees. $500/hour? Why should you get that when Bubba makes $8.5/hour at McDonalds? Is your contribution to society 5800% more than a fast food worker? I bet orphan drugs and the regulatory system would be less expensive if we weren't always worried about the next predatory lawsuit around the corner.

[DGuller]

He should be able to charge whatever he wants for the drug. If the price is too high then he'll get competition.

That argument only holds water if there is free market competition.  It seems to be a bit of a dubious proposition in a case where there is one producer, very high barriers to entry, inelastic demand from consumers, and third-party payer.  It may be that you're still right, and I agree that journalists can be trusted to essentially lie in order to create an outrage, but that's an awful lot of assumptions you're violating here.

[Tamas]

Then what stops the patients from buying the drugs from elsewhere?

The regulations, of which there is not enough according to Larch

[The Larch]

Then what stops the patients from buying the drugs from elsewhere?

The regulations, of which there is not enough according to Larch

Of course. I don't want my drugs being manufactured by some shady Chinese company, like most that are sold online. It's a matter of public health. The regulations that would need to be applied in the US case have to deal with healthcare pricing (a notorious issue over there), not with access to the market. And as Fate said, there are already alternatives.

[Fate]

He should be able to charge whatever he wants for the drug. If the price is too high then he'll get competition.

That argument only holds water if there is free market competition.  It seems to be a bit of a dubious proposition in a case where there is one producer, very high barriers to entry, inelastic demand from consumers, and third-party payer.  It may be that you're still right, and I agree that journalists can be trusted to essentially lie in order to create an outrage, but that's an awful lot of assumptions you're violating here.

Who determines what the price should be? The drug is long off patent. Any drug company could decide tomorrow to apply for permission to manufacture the drug. Our asshole hedge fund manager is able to get away with a price hike because it's not profitable for any other company to get into the market.

[DGuller]

Who determines what the price should be? The drug is long off patent. Any drug company could decide tomorrow to apply for permission to manufacture the drug. Our asshole hedge fund manager is able to get away with a price hike because it's not profitable for any other company to get into the market.

I've read that generic makers can't get their hands on the drug, because its distribution is tightly controlled.  Is that true?

[Fate]

Who determines what the price should be? The drug is long off patent. Any drug company could decide tomorrow to apply for permission to manufacture the drug. Our asshole hedge fund manager is able to get away with a price hike because it's not profitable for any other company to get into the market.

I've ready that generic makers can't get their hands on the drug, because its distribution is tightly controlled.  Is that true?

Sure, that aspect seems to be true if you want a stateside supply of the drug. But there's no reason a competitor couldn't buy a boat load of the drug from Europe for cheap and use that to reverse engineer the product.

The major hurdle would be R&D, regulatory approval, manufacturing design and development, regulatory approval of manufacturing, production, and packaging/distribution.

Again, who determines what the price should be?

[The Brain]

I don't understand why competition is impossible, and if it is then customers should be happy that there is one supplier instead of zero. I don't see why pharma companies should do welfare, surely that's for states and non-profits.

[Ideologue]

Pharma should be a state industry, so that's not much of an objection.

[Valmy]

Again, who determines what the price should be?

Angry mobs. The same people who historically determined food prices.

[Admiral Yi]

Pharma should be a state industry, so that's not much of an objection.

I believe it is in Canada.  We probably can't hope to match their prodigious output of world-changing drugs though.

[Martinus]

Pharma should be a state industry, so that's not much of an objection.

Yup. Healthcare and education should be non-for-profit.

[Martinus]

Again, who determines what the price should be?

Antitrust authorities. For the last century or so.