Somewhat related to this: There's a drug that was just approved before Christmas for a condition I have (Spinraza for SMA). Everybody was super excited because it's the first treatment ever for it. Then we saw the price they put on it: $125,000 per treatment, with an expected 6 treatments the first year, and 3 every year after. So $750,000 for the first year of treatment. Who exactly do they expect can pay for that other than hoping insurers will? On the website for the drug there's a section on how to pay for it and one thing they list is "we'll point you to charities that might be able to help" (or maybe just don't gouge everybody). When asked why the price was so high, the CEO of Biogen said it was because they had no competition and could set it as high as they thought they could get away with.
Last edited by Nellise; 2017-01-19 at 11:33 PM.
Exactly. It is not an argument against capitalism, it is an argument against "untamed capitalism", in which free market isn't guaranteed and supported by the government, but is transformed into an oligopoly dwelling. An actual working capitalism with an actual free market has these cases sorted and monopolies disbanded - which is exactly what happened to the company in the OP.
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Eh, they'll just find another drug and another patent to abuse.
The people responsible should be jailed and the company should be nationalized. If the people responsible were ever let out, they would be placed on a blacklist that essentially prevents them from earning more than minimum wage (IE: the government would take 100% of everything over minimum).
Punishments need to be felt. I doubt this one was.
Human progress isn't measured by industry. It's measured by the value you place on a life.
Just, be kind.
I think in general capitalists, or people who think it is the best economic system realize more than most that monopolies must be controlled. They also believe that certain 'natural monopolies' such as public utilities (probably prisons as mentioned above), SHOULD be government controlled for various reasons. Maybe there are capitalists on the fringe that disagree, but I haven't really seen any literature to the contrary.
Edit:
Also yes us healthcare system is a total donkey show, yes pharmaceutical companies are scum (most big corporations are, they will all charge a price that maximizes their profits, this is why monopolies are so dangerous), yes the average American would be better of with some sort of western european healthcare system. That being said, like someone mentioned above the US healthcare market (or subsidizing) is a HUGE driver of innovation in medicine.
Last edited by INVASMANIXOXOXO; 2017-01-20 at 01:53 AM.
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Free-market capitalism is no joke. It's good if you already have a lot of money, however.
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When pharmaceutical companies settle these kinds of things their stock hardly crashes, the reason is simple they make 500 million and get a fine of 100 million. It is just like big banks we make them pay $100 for stealing $1,000 and the settlement gets the government off their backs for a while.
Right. The penalty needs to be more like "All the profit you could have possibly made off this, plus damages to whatever we assess as those who were priced out of treatment, plus a punitive amount designed to not only impede business by yourself, but to give other companies pause before thinking they can do the same".
You made $500 million off this? Your penalty's gonna be over a billion, easy. And if you can't pay, well, we'll take the company and all intellectual property you have.
A fair price for a drug is what a multi-billion dollar international pharmaceutical conglomerate is willing to sell it for, and what a parent is willing to pay to save their dying baby.
Works great as long as we ignore copyright law, patents and trademarks, like China does.
Kekekeke.