Pharmaceutical company buys drug used to treat life-threatening infections; raises price from $13.50 - Polidicks

By the way im pretty sure several analogs of Pyrimethamine are already known, using an analog to circumvent a patent wouldnt require coming up with a completely new drug. Also depending on the chemical difference it doesnt neccisarily have to have any new side effects or interactions, if the area that is different is not very active or if it doesn't change the shape alot it wont change its interactions much either.

Martin Shkreli is criminally insane. Have him spend life in prison. [editline]22nd September 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Grenadiac;48732085]I hate that our society is literally throttled and controlled by absolute psychopaths[/QUOTE]If it were up to me I'd have psychopaths wiped out, I mean they aren't really human, they're just sort of a mistake, like a birth defect.

[QUOTE=Kljunas;48737517]Even if selling 750$ Daraprim is his only way to make big revenue that doesn't make it right. It's not like making his company grow is some sort of necessity.[/QUOTE] This puts it pretty nicely. It's better for tens of thousands of people to be able to afford their life-saving medication than have this company rake in money.

Could this fall under undue influence? The seller is obviously abusing the customers distressed position and critical dependency on the product to push an unfair contract. US justice will probably have some wild interpretation on this though. This is also clearly in violation against the international right to health. Sadly the US has signed the treaty but not ratified (probably because of the continuing political unwillingness to concretely support the notion of labor and social rights).

This is cartoonishly evil. It is well past time that America join the rest of the free world and institute a true universal healthcare plan to prevent monsters like Shkreli from continuing to exploit peoples' simple survival. A daily dosage of this drug will now cost you over $22,000 per month. [I]Twenty two thousand dollars [B]per month.[/B][/I]

I really don't understand his, "we will give it away for free or half of it for $1 to people who can't afford." It sounds more like a conspiracy to make middle-class families disappear because they can 'afford' to pay. Hope this skinny fuck's League of Legends team forever fails.

[QUOTE=gufu;48737430]You are implying that R&D would not happen simply because the profits cannot be assured to be astronomic? While logical, the R&D would still happen since the untapped markets could still be exploited, like the current market currently is. Either way, it is still an unethical approach.[/QUOTE] Drug R&D starts in the hundreds of millions of dollars range and goes up quickly. If you don't have patents guaranteeing that they will get a return for 20 or 30 years they will be far less willing to risk that investment.

[QUOTE=gufu;48737453]Just so, can we back this up with statistics?[/QUOTE] As of 2014, US$2.5 billion per new drug entity, of which US$1.4 billion are out-of-pocket costs, the other US$1.2 billion being the opportunity cost of investing the capital. This is inclusive of the costs of all the failures. [url="http://csdd.tufts.edu/news/complete_story/pr_tufts_csdd_2014_cost_study"]Source[/url]

This is just steak for bernie, he can push away immigration for a minute and talk about this issue which is directly under his authority now [editline]22nd September 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Headhumpy;48737340]Again, you're not quite understanding how drug development works. Drug development costs money, and companies need to have a guarantee that they can recoup this money when they do eventually come up with a drug that works. The patent system does this by granting market exclusivity to the company that creates a new drug. Production and distribution costs are minimal compared to R&D costs.[/QUOTE] It's an inherently unsustainable system, either we radically cut the amount of regulations (which means people die) or we progress to a cooperative research system which divides the costs between government research, private research and nonprofit research to bring the drug to the market. We can't afford to make drugs that people can afford when projections are showing future drugs will have to cost tens of billions to even bring to market

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;48738129]This is cartoonishly evil. It is well past time that America join the rest of the free world and institute a true universal healthcare plan to prevent monsters like Shkreli from continuing to exploit peoples' simple survival. A daily dosage of this drug will now cost you over $22,000 per month. [I]Twenty two thousand dollars [B]per month.[/B][/I][/QUOTE] How will a universal healthcare plan help avoid situations like these? Also, the costs are either borne by your insurer, or if you are uninsured, Turing will sell the drug to you at reduced or no cost.

[QUOTE=Headhumpy;48738608]How will a universal healthcare plan help avoid situations like these? or if you are uninsured, Turing will sell the drug to you at reduced or no cost.[/QUOTE] Right, only if you qualify for their very stringent programs. If this is a life-saving drug we shouldn't be beholdened to the generosity of the company, the government should make sure its affordable, if that means providing funding because its expensive to make fine, but if the reason why prices are high is because they can be, then the hammer should come down [editline]22nd September 2015[/editline] Drug-affordabiloty programs from pharma is just a PR stunt, for every one person they give meds to, at least a hundred are struggling to afford the medicine

[QUOTE=Sableye;48738643]Right, only if you qualify for their very stringent programs. If this is a life-saving drug we shouldn't be beholdened to the generosity of the company, the government should make sure its affordable, if that means providing funding because its expensive to make fine, but if the reason why prices are high is because they can be, then the hammer should come down[/QUOTE] Actually, I don't have any information on whether people have been denied the drug due to their inability to pay, so I won't comment. In any case, I agree with you that this kind of regulatory rent-seeking needs to stop, but it seems like a lot of people don't know why they were allowed to do it in the first place. This is very annoying because the general public has lumped all pharmaceutical companies into the same "evil" category and assumes that any company that sells a drug for a seemingly exorbitant amount is automatically price gouging.

[QUOTE=Headhumpy;48738709]Actually, I don't have any information on whether people have been denied the drug due to their inability to pay, so I won't comment. In any case, I agree with you that this kind of regulatory rent-seeking needs to stop, but it seems like a lot of people don't know why they were allowed to do it in the first place. This is very annoying because the general public has lumped all pharmaceutical companies into the same "evil" category and assumes that any company that sells a drug for a seemingly exorbitant amount is automatically price gouging.[/QUOTE] No pharma isn't evil, but this company in particular is because this guy basically has a track record of this, buying up drugs just to raise the price, no new alternatives ever come out, Its purely to make money for his hedge fund which coincidentally is invested in pharma companies which usually see massive profits from jacking up the price arbitrarily

[QUOTE=Sableye;48738785]No pharma isn't evil, but this company in particular is because this guy basically has a track record of this, buying up drugs just to raise the price, no new alternatives ever come out, Its purely to make money for his hedge fund which coincidentally is invested in pharma companies which usually see massive profits from jacking up the price arbitrarily[/QUOTE] Alright, we're on the same page then :v:

[QUOTE=Sableye;48738643]Drug-affordabiloty programs from pharma is just a PR stunt, for every one person they give meds to, at least a hundred are struggling to afford the medicine[/QUOTE] This is so true, my family is definitely middle-class and we fail to be eligible for any sort of affordability program. My mom has to pay $700 a month for her post-menopausal medicine, which she needs because she's handicapped (hemiparesis) and cannot afford to deal with osteoporosis. An $8400 (minimum) yearly prescription budget is just insane.

So does this guy get his morals from Saturday morning cartoon villains, or something?

I could understand a 50% increase or 100% but over 1000% is to much and over 5000% increase is ludicrous.

This guy is not going to last long, someone will eventually blackmail him over something

[QUOTE=Kljunas;48737517]Even if selling 750$ Daraprim is his only way to make big revenue that doesn't make it right. It's not like making his company grow is some sort of necessity.[/QUOTE] uhh, is this a joke? He's the CEO of a corporation -- pharmaceutical or not -- his job IS to make Turing grow. he wants additional revenue to continue funding research of his new drug (which, by the way, is a process that can cost millions or billions of dollars to research, and end up failing in trials). it's a gamble, but it's one that he's trying to do to improve Daraprim because it's a shitty drug. the $750 price tag isn't going to get anyone killed.

[QUOTE=Soleeedus;48739322]uhh, is this a joke? He's the CEO of a corporation -- pharmaceutical or not -- his job IS to make Turing grow. people don't seem to understand how the pharmaceutical distribution system works. the $750 price tag isn't going to get anyone killed[/QUOTE] Just significant unnecessary financial hardship. But that's fine.

Why does anyone who isn't some psychopathic CEO defend this? This kind of behavior benefits literally nobody else yet I see working and middle class right wingers defend it even though this fucks them over as well.

[QUOTE=Levelog;48739341]Just significant unnecessary financial hardship. But that's fine.[/QUOTE] lol patients aren't paying $750 for the pills, you don't really know how the pharmaceutical distribution system works. [editline]22nd September 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Big Dumb American;48738129]This is cartoonishly evil. It is well past time that America join the rest of the free world and institute a true universal healthcare plan to prevent monsters like Shkreli from continuing to exploit peoples' simple survival. A daily dosage of this drug will now cost you over $22,000 per month. [I]Twenty two thousand dollars [B]per month.[/B][/I][/QUOTE] what, like Obamacare?

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;48739376]Why does anyone who isn't some psychopathic CEO defend this? This kind of behavior benefits literally nobody else yet I see working and middle class right wingers defend it even though this fucks them over as well.[/QUOTE] Because nothing is illegal about his actions. The item he is selling is a one time treatment, not a life-long prescription. This is capitalism at its finest. They're making a profit on it and are doing whatever they want with it (and I believe its back into R&D of other drugs) CEO is still a dick

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;48739376]Why does anyone who isn't some psychopathic CEO defend this? This kind of behavior benefits literally nobody else yet I see working and middle class right wingers defend it even though this fucks them over as well.[/QUOTE] I haven't seen anyone specifically defending his actions. Being in favor of the free market is not the same thing as liking CEOs and corporations.

This probably wouldn't have blown up the way it did if the dude didn't react to criticism like the kind of detached from reality asshole most people think CEOs are.

For the people who can't pay or use medicare or another medical insurance provider, isn't that cost going to go mostly on the shoulders of the insurance companies? Which can't be good for the end-user either.

[QUOTE=Soleeedus;48739456]lol patients aren't paying $750 for the pills, you don't really know how the pharmaceutical distribution system works.[/QUOTE] Turing is still gaming the system and extracting, rather than creating value. It's not illegal, but it probably should be.

[QUOTE=Code3Response;48739638]Because nothing is illegal about his actions. The item he is selling is a one time treatment, not a life-long prescription. This is capitalism at its finest. They're making a profit on it and are doing whatever they want with it (and I believe its back into R&D of other drugs) CEO is still a dick[/QUOTE] This shouldn't be legal, this is a prime example of why healthcare should never be in the hands of private companies.

[QUOTE=TomoAlien;48731964]I wish terrible things to this "person". Things that would make stuff from horror movies seem like a peaceful happy stroll through the park. Bein' edgy again... But seriously, it deeply angers me that "people" like that exist. I don't understand how someone can live with themselves like that, but then again... I have a moral spine unlike this being.[/QUOTE] That's not "edgy" at all. People need to stop thinking that this kind of mindset is bad. Fact of the matter is, this asshole exists in the first place because we tolerate his existence. We tolerate him and his greed, we tolerate his bullshit excuses, and we tolerate this kind of behavior throughout American society. We treat everything like a business here, and that's actually really bad and destructive; it legitimizes his behavior. For most people anyway it's bad. Unless of course you're super wealthy and privileged, then you probably don't give a shit about the rest of us who are just trying to go about our lives, live decently and comfortably, and not get shit on/fucked over in the process. This wouldn't be an issue if we got rid of him, and actually without him, we could live much more comfortably and securely. But until people actually decide to get together and get rid of him and people like him to solve this bullshit, nothing will change. Not unless the government, by some happy act of chance, decides to get off its ass and actually look out for us and say this sort of behavior will not be tolerated. But as far as people actually standing up for themselves goes, that isn't going to happen until people stop giving a shit and stop being afraid and actually get angry enough to try and change things. (And the worst problem is, people aren't [i]that[/i] angry yet.) There's always going to be assholes out there, but we shouldn't be so passive to put up with them-- especially when they're charging outrageous prices for life-saving medical care and drugs which we could need at some point in our lives. Medical care alone is something that we all [i]will[/i] need eventually; we all get sick eventually, we have things go wrong with our bodies, and although we all die in the end, that doesn't mean we shouldn't do whatever we can to postpone it and enjoy life for as long as we can. Fuck this guy and everyone like him.

[QUOTE=sgman91;48739661]I haven't seen anyone specifically defending his actions. Being in favor of the free market is not the same thing as liking CEOs and corporations.[/QUOTE] go look at his twitter page, he used to have probably 3 or 4 people regularly stop in, then after the purchase went a head and got every corporate yes man or person he knew to defend him with stuff like "Saying this will kill people is dishonest." What about the insurance premiums that renew soon? Or the person who doesn't rack up a high enough bills for the insurance to pay? What then? They aren't particularly good defenders either.