If you like your Covid-19 vaccine, thank a big corporation.

According to our constituion and to what everyone else thinks we have a social market economy.

Katie Porter Grills Pharmaceutical Exec Over Drug Price Hikes Amidst Stock Buybacks.

Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) questions the CEO of Abbvie, a pharmaceutical company, about the massive amounts of money spent on stock buybacks and dividends while increasing drug prices during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Published: May 19, 2021

Yeah... This is what I am talking about. Katie Porter is being silly. If you are asking drug companies to take big financial risks, they need to be able to reap big financial rewards.

The politicians of both parties are mouthing off about this silliness. They refuse to deal with the big issue in health care.

Americans refuse to accept that health care requires difficult choices. We need to let people with terminal illness die so that other people can live. The idea that we should spend millions of dollars on anyone to extend their life a few months is unsustainable.

But no politician is willing to tell the truth... People die and they will always die.

Question for Real Music (or anyone else who can answer it).

You have the best and brightest minds on the planet. They have spent 12 or 15 years of their lives working hard getting an education. Now you want them to make miracle drugs and cure diseases for you.

How do you propose we pay them? There are two realistic choices.

1) We pay them a high salary for their work with the understand that we will pay them whether or not their particular project works. This is high risk work and not every project succeeds.

2) We pay them nothing if their project fails, and pay them a huge amount if their project succeed.

Imagine if someone asked you to work for them... how would you want to be paid?

Our current system actually pays many scientists a salary lower than they are worth with stock options if they succeed. The money for scientists salaries comes from private investors who lose their investment if a project fails... and consequently expect to make big profits if they invest in a successful project.

That is the way the system works. Instead of complaining about it... why don't you suggest a way to pay scientists that would work better?

There is a saying in engineering; "Good, fast, cheap. Choose 2".

If you want brilliant, educated, hardworking scientists to work for cheap... you are being an idiot.

Right, and Volkswagen, Mercedez, and BMW are owned by whom? Would that be stockholders?

Yes.

Why drugs cost more in America.

Prescription drugs cost more in the United States than anywhere else in the world. One big reason why is America’s particular system for how drugs get to patients, which is unlike almost any other country’s. But it’s also because the American prescription drug market is so profitable that the money it generates powers the entire global pharmaceutical industry.

Published May 15, 2019

Should the federal government be able to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs?

Americans spend more on prescription drugs than any other country in the world: about $1,200 per person every year. One in four say the cost is problematic, and some say they haven’t taken their medicine as directed as a result. In Congress, both parties are looking to address the problem -- but with different approaches. William Brangham talks to Emmarie Huetteman of Kaiser Health News.

Published Dec 12, 2019

You didn't answer the question Real Music, I will ask it again because without addressing it this discussion is silly.

How do you propose to find new drug development?

I think you being unrealistic... asking for better drugs without a plan to pay for their development is a fantasy.

The Democrats plan to reduce drug prices will slow the development of new treatments. The non-partisan CBO did the math and this fact isn't in dispute.

Americans pay far more for drugs from insulin to antibiotics to vaccines than Haitians or Guatemalans. The reason is obvious

It only makes sense for the biggest economies to pay for the largest share of drug development.

Does anyone disagree with this?

I believe the answer to your answer can be found at the
6:15 thru 6:51 mark of the video.

The video never made any references to either Haitians or Guatemalans.

In fact, the video only made references to drug prices of:

Sweden
Netherlands
Switzerland
Norway
Australia
France
Germany
United Kingdom
Canada
and the United States.

Well sure. This is a good video. They make these points.

1. "America is subsidizing the cost of drug production for the rest of the world". America is paying the cost of development so Sweden and Canada don't have to.

I stand by my point that Haiti and El Salavador should get these drugs at cost of manufacture (or lower). They should not pay the cost of drug development.

However, if America stops paying the cost of development, Canada and Sweden will suffer. Whether that is a good thing or not is up to you.

2. These other developed countries have less access to drugs. Some drugs used by Americans are not available in the UK or Canada or Sweeden. Again whether this is a good thing or not is up to your politics.

I think you are being unrealistic... at least you are avoiding the real questions.

First... should America force other developed countries to pay their share of drug development costs? How should we do this?

Second... should we slow the process of drug development in order to lower costs.

Third... should we decrease the availability of possibly life changing drugs to Americans to lower costs?

I think you are avoiding the difficult choices. If you want a large amount of powerful new drugs that are safe effective and cheap... you aren't being realistic.

These are the important questions

1. What would you do to change the current system (that accepts the reality that drug development is expensive and someone has to pay for it)?

2. What would the negative consequences of the changes you are proposing be? (In reality, there are always consequences).

3. Is it really worth it?

You aren't really answering any of these questions.