Big Pharma speaks, and Trump will listen.
Never bet against the idea that America is fundamentally corrupt.
intercst
(long, LLY PFE MRK)
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**The Federation of American Hospitals viewed the executive order as a positive. **
Give it to them hard.
That’s US health care. All the big players are trying to shove costs to each other and prevent price competition in their own space, while the middle class suffers.
The only constant is that they’re all extracting a generous skim rate.
intercst
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Today Trump plans to issue most favored nation Medicare drug price plan. Prices will be tied to best prices in other developed nation.
Not likely to be adopted in Congress. So now executive order expected next week.
Will it work? If drug company refuses to sell at indicated price what happens? Medicare reduces co-pay to competitors drug?
Method encourages drug company to raise prices in other developed countries.
They tell us higher prices in the US pays for research. So research costs get shared more fairly. But higher prices also pay for heavy advertising in the US.
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That’s what they tell us, but most new drugs are developed in university labs and by the NIH. Pharma R&D focuses on reverse engineering competitors’ best-selling products with the goal of making a copycat medication just different enough to get patent protection.
Pharma will sue saying that President does not have the power to enact this by executive order. The most corrupt members of the House & Senate (which is more than 90% of them) will fall in line to protect their big campaign contributors.
I’m not worried.
intercst
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Yes, the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) is a trade association for for-profit hospitals in the United States. It represents investor-owned and managed community hospitals. While the organization is not itself for-profit, its members are.
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That is not true. Research funded by NIH and others in universities do the studies that identify disease mechanisms and sometimes key enzymes involved. Drug development is about finding the right candidate to address that disease and then carry it through the various stages to get FDA approval. Drug development cost they used to say was typically $100MM. Lots more than spent on university research.
Yes, when a drug companies comes up with a drug that sells well, especially a block buster, competitors do develop competitive products to get around patents etc. Usually they claim the new drug has improvements to get doctors to prescribe it.
A new drug in a new treatment is a risk. No one knows how long it will be on the market. So of course copying someone else’s success is good business. Isn’t that the American way?
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Sure it’s good business, but it’s not anything that’s providing new cures for disease. The cutting edge stuff is being outside of Big Pharma labs.
That’s why the Trump mission to punish the NIH and university labs is so damaging. Pharma executives with a focus on continually growing excessive Executive Compensation are unlikely to pick up the slack.
intercst
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I certainly agree that govt grants are the seed money for much of academic research. Blocking funds means we are eating our seed corn. Research activity is reduced. And new researchers don’t get trained. A disaster. A brief interruption may not be a big deal. Mostly a wake up call. But if extended it will be seriously damaging.
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Agreed. The thing about researchers is that they’re people, with lives and families to support. They won’t just chill out waiting for government funding to come back. They’re being heavily recruited by non-doofus countries. Some high estimates predict that the US can lose 75% of research scientists -
Majority of Polled Scientists Considering Leaving United States, Signaling "Brain Drain" - Eos.
Also, they’re highly specialized. When their funding is pulled, the can’t easily switch gears and research other things.
Public defunding of research has dramatic effects on private funding.
Point of disagreement - it’s already seriously damaging.
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Yes, C&EN article noted that entering graduate students–presumably the cream of the crop–may very well choose other careers when their acceptance letters and funding are rescinded.
Yeah, but “Make America Great Again!”
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[quote=“eldemonio, post:10, topic:115818”]
They’re being heavily recruited… the US can lose 75% of research scientists -
[/quote]
Yeah, but “Make America Great Again!”
The “JCs” say “good, they can do their research at someone else’s expense. Meanwhile, I can have another tax cut!”
Steve
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I think that’s what got us here, decades of tax cuts for the wealthy.
That sort of thinking almost certainly has driven defunding of education, infrastructure, and mental health, in Michigan.
Steve
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True dat! Decades of tax cuts, now we can’t afford essential programs.
I was talking to a buddy the other day. I informed him that we probably pay more in taxes than some millionaires and billionaires. His response…we should get tax cuts. God help us.
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Buffett talked, year/decades ago, about how his secretary paid a higher percentage of her income in taxes than he does. You friend’s preference for tax cuts for him, vs increased taxes for those who have benefited so richly from 45 years of “supply side economics”, shows the effectiveness of 45 years of tax cut propaganda.
Steve
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Neoliberalism has sold us a sack of rocks.
If you encourage people to be selfish they’re easier to defeat, one by one. Divide and conquer.
It’s as old as the hills; United we stand, divided we fall.
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That has been exactly the sales pitch, for 45 years: “sell out your neighbor, and maybe you will get a job or a tax cut”.
Steve
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As in I’m for raising someone else’s taxes, not mine!!
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