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hep c drug that sells for 900 elsewhere, goes for 84,000 in america


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2014 Apr 15, 12:37am   11,318 views  29 comments

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http://theblot.com/drug-costs-84000-u-s-just-900-elsewhere-7718112

A California pharmaceutical company is defending its decision to sell a breakthrough hepatitis C regimen in the United States for $84,000 while selling the same drug for considerably less overseas. Foster City-based Gilead Sciences won approval last year by the Food and Drug Administration to begin selling a new regimen called Sovaldi, a drug that in clinical tests cured the hepatitis C virus in 90 percent of patients with mild, if any, side effects.

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2   anonymous   2014 Apr 15, 12:41am  

“Gilead’s global pricing model is based on a country’s ability to pay,” a Gilead spokesperson told TheBlot by email.

-------–

In other words, they are tacking an additional 83,100$ of economic rent on to the cost, because they can. And they can, because the democrats rammed heritagefoundationcare down our throats, forcing us working folk to pay the fine or face jail time.

3   Robert Sproul   2014 Apr 15, 1:00am  

10 Yankee dollars a pill in Brazil, 1000 bucks per in the USA.
Gee, I wonder if a black-market will arise?

4   New Renter   2014 Apr 15, 1:14am  

Robert Sproul says

10 Yankee dollars a pill in Brazil, 1000 bucks per in the USA.

Gee, I wonder if a black-market will arise?

I wonder if this pill works on dogs:

http://www.mailman.columbia.edu/academic-departments/centers/discovery-canine-hepatitis-c-virus-opens-new-doors-research-deadly-huma

If so "dogs" may get much more reasonable pricing than human patients.

5   Tenpoundbass   2014 Apr 15, 1:52am  

Call it Crazy says

Will Obamacare pay for it??

Not unless your a diabetic male in need of birth control pills.

6   drew_eckhardt   2014 Apr 15, 1:58am  

Call it Crazy says

Will Obamacare pay for it??

Yes.

This is why PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) gave up $8B a year in drug discounts for 10 years in exchange for removing the re-import provision from ACA then spent $100M on advertising to get it passed.

The health insurance companies will do fine too - one $84K treatment allows $21K of gross profit for them on individual plans of the sort sold through the ACA exchanges.

7   gsr   2014 Apr 15, 4:11am  

drew_eckhardt says

one $84K treatment allows $21K of gross profit for them on individual plans of the sort sold through the ACA exchanges.

Nice! We all have been collectively paying 84K for each treatment. Why does it matter anyway? We can just borrow/print and pay.

8   turtledove   2014 Apr 15, 4:31am  

Is it really surprising? We came up with a system that didn't address costs, it only addressed financing. Now everyone can afford to overpay!

9   Dan8267   2014 Apr 15, 4:41am  

errc says

hep c drug that sells for 900 elsewhere, goes for 84,000 in america

But I thought the free market was the most efficient way to allocate resources!

11   turtledove   2014 Apr 15, 4:51am  

Dan8267 says

New Renter says

I wonder if this pill works on dogs:

http://www.mailman.columbia.edu/academic-departments/centers/discovery-canine-hepatitis-c-virus-opens-new-doors-research-deadly-huma

What are you doing with your dog?

They got matching tattoos using the same needle.

13   curious2   2014 Apr 15, 5:01am  

Robert Sproul says

10 Yankee dollars a pill in Brazil, 1000 bucks per in the USA.

Gee, I wonder if a black-market will arise?

That's why Obamacare prohibits re-importation, even for personal use, and steps up enforcement.

Dan8267 says

But I thought the free market was the most efficient way to allocate resources!

As mell's link reports, we don't have a free market in medicine. To the contrary, medicine has a special privilege to charge unlimited prices, "no lifetime caps," and you're not allowed to shop around. In a free market, the price would be constrained by:
1) how much would it cost to go to a cheaper country and buy it there, or buy it online from there?
2) how much more is it worth compared to cheaper alternatives?
3) as mell's link mentioned, competing products are expected within a year; how much is it worth to get this product now rather than a competitor next year?
In a free market, people wouldn't pay nearly that much. But, in the existing system, we have no choice; we all pay in advance, so that it's "free" or subsidized so heavily that it isn't individually rational for customers to shop around or wait. In medicine even more so than housing, we have artificial scarcity; without price controls, subsidies are captured by the sellers. Mandatory subsidized insurance is the mechanism by which Americans end up paying the highest prices in the world for everything in that system.

14   anonymous   2014 Apr 15, 5:38am  

Dan8267 says

errc says

hep c drug that sells for 900 elsewhere, goes for 84,000 in america

But I thought the free market was the most efficient way to allocate resources!

Does not compute. Cmon dan, you're smarter than that. If this were a free market, id buy the drug from overseas for 900. If I had any use for a hep c cure,,,,

Rather than quibble over the same tired old hat,,,I'm sure everyone would agree that they'd much prefer the state controlled system that negotiates prices and yields the 900$ sticker, over whatever you democrat voting tards want to call this horseshit you have got us stuck with now

15   New Renter   2014 Apr 15, 5:39am  

turtledove says

Dan8267 says

New Renter says

I wonder if this pill works on dogs:

http://www.mailman.columbia.edu/academic-departments/centers/discovery-canine-hepatitis-c-virus-opens-new-doors-research-deadly-huma

What are you doing with your dog?

They got matching tattoos using the same needle.

Yeah but he went first!

16   Ceffer   2014 Apr 15, 5:48am  

With all the tattoos today, I thought the smell of vaguely decaying liver disease was considered sexy.

17   turtledove   2014 Apr 15, 5:55am  

Ceffer says

With all the tattoos today, I thought the smell of vaguely decaying liver disease was considered sexy.

For me it's the yellowish tint to the sclera. That is hot!

18   Heraclitusstudent   2014 Apr 15, 5:55am  

errc says

But I thought the free market was the most efficient way to allocate resources!

Does not compute. Cmon dan, you're smarter than that. If this were a free market, id buy the drug from overseas for 900.

They simply separated different markets...
Each market works based on the demand (some morons paying $84000) and the supply (a monopoly).

It sounds like blackmail (pay up or die), but... hey, they spent a lot of money to do this research.

19   New Renter   2014 Apr 15, 7:25am  

turtledove says

Ceffer says

With all the tattoos today, I thought the smell of vaguely decaying liver disease was considered sexy.

For me it's the yellowish tint to the sclera. That is hot!

I guess something had to replace the heroin wasted waif look.

20   lakermania   2014 Apr 15, 8:06am  

So wouldn't it be cheaper for health insurance companies to pay for an all expenses paid Rio vacation to pick up the pills in Brazil, rather than have the patient treated here? Sounds like a win-win scenario.

21   mell   2014 Apr 15, 8:15am  

Dan8267 says

errc says

hep c drug that sells for 900 elsewhere, goes for 84,000 in america

But I thought the free market was the most efficient way to allocate resources!

There is nothing free about a market where thugs arrest you if you buy stuff priced reasonably in one place and try to resell it in another place where its priced to extortion.

22   Dan8267   2014 Apr 15, 8:39am  

mell says

There is nothing free about a market where thugs arrest you if you buy stuff priced reasonably in one place and try to resell it in another place where its priced to extortion.

All true, but isn't the current situation the result of free market behavior run amok to the point where big business can write laws? And ultimately, if corporations aren't kept under control, isn't this inevitable?

23   anonymous   2014 Apr 15, 8:46am  

Dan8267 says

mell says

There is nothing free about a market where thugs arrest you if you buy stuff priced reasonably in one place and try to resell it in another place where its priced to extortion.

All true, but isn't the current situation the result of free market behavior run amok to the point where big business can write laws? And ultimately, if corporations aren't kept under control, isn't this inevitable?

How did you arrive at this solution? You're usually very good at expressing your point so its easy to understand. On this one it just seems that you've been watching too much foxnews for dumbocrats, and want to blindly assign blame to, in this case, "the free market".

To me, a free market would look like this.

I decline to purchase health insurance, no problemo

Some drug company wants to sell their formula for 84k

I laugh at them as they sell nothing

I smoke some weed

All is well.

24   curious2   2014 Apr 15, 8:59am  

drew_eckhardt says

drug discounts

The discounts were illusory, off of imaginary sticker prices. "Hey, I'll sell you an ordinary plastic spoon for $10 billion, or today only I'll give you 10% off, only $9 billion for that same spoon." Nobody would buy, except politicians seeking a share of the profits via their patronage networks, who make the purchase mandatory at that price. I don't even hate spoons. I just wouldn't pay $9 billion for one.

Heraclitusstudent says

It sounds like blackmail (pay up or die), but... hey, they spent a lot of money to do this research.

No, that's incorrect on every level. It doesn't sound like blackmail because they aren't threatening to kill you. They are offering to help, for a fee, and the question is how much is it worth? Hep C usually causes no symptoms for years, so it's rarely urgent; if you have it, you could probably add treating it to your "to do" list on your next visit to Mexico or Brazil. And the research is paid mostly by NIH, which has been converted into PhRMA's R&D branch to develop daily pills. PhRMA spends most of its unlimited income on advertising, marketing, and lobbying.

Dan8267 says

And ultimately, if corporations aren't kept under control, isn't this inevitable?

I suppose in an environment where most "news" is brought to you by PhRMA, and where people accept the notion that government can (and should) save you from yourself, then yes, this result is predictable. It is the logical consequence of patronage networks pursuing their own self-interest, maximizing the revenues that they can extract from public policy. Unlimited corporate "speech" (money) in political campaigns is one channel, but there are others, including the revolving door (e.g. Billy Tauzin's $2 million/year gig at PhRMA). If you accept the premise that government should spend a lot of money, while allowing the inevitable structure that delivers minimum value for maximum price (thus maximizing patronage opportunities), then this result becomes inevitable.

25   HydroCabron   2014 Apr 15, 9:51am  

Honestly, I'm jonesing so hard for another hit of Paxil that I can't really care about a threat so distant as hepatitis C. My mind is so fogged by antidepressants that I don't really understand the article.

Gotta hit the streets. Maybe knock over a liquor store and get some scratch to buy more of that sweet P from my dealer.

I think I have the shakes...

26   curious2   2014 Apr 15, 10:10am  

Iosef V HydroCabron says

I think I have the shakes...

Paxil withdrawal doesn't usually cause shakes, it causes convulsions. I hope you're not pregnant, because withdrawal can cause miscarriages, but pre-natal exposure in boys is linked to autism and developmental delays. Whoever got you hooked on that crap should have got censured, but probably got paid.

Iosef V HydroCabron says

My mind is so fogged by antidepressants that I don't really understand the article.

That would explain your hopeless sarcasm, and why you joke about neonatal withdrawal that often requires intensive care (at huge cost btw, so the medical industrial complex wins again, more pills producing more hospital bills, "Thanks Obamacare").

27   anonymous   2014 Apr 15, 11:16am  

Curious, I'm curious as to how it came to pass, that we all knew how screwed up the health care system was. Then, obama forced heritagefoundationcare into law and slapped his name on it, and now, the only thing the GOP-is-a-bunch-of-idiots-that-ruined-everything-lol crowd has to say about american healthcare post ppaca, is that those who would dare question it, are teabaggers and whiners

Oddly enough, never once have I witnessed one of them counter a valid criticism with a sensible defense, or explanation. Just attacks against detractors, name calling, all the while, we're all getting fleeced, by a system that appears to be worse then that which it replaced. Welcome to bizzaro world

28   carrieon   2014 Apr 15, 1:27pm  

The ACA just doubled Everyone's insurance premiums to pay for these inflated American drug prices.
If the drug companies need more, then the ACA will double everyone's premiums again.

29   drew_eckhardt   2014 Apr 15, 4:19pm  

Dan8267 says

But I thought the free market was the most efficient way to allocate resources!

It is, although America hasn't had a free market health care system since before WW2.

As of 2010 46.5 million Americans received Medicare and 66.4 million got Medicaid which aren't part of the free market.

Among the rest of us nearly every one with a decent paying has an expensive but "good" health insurance package because that's a cheap way for employers to compensate us (not subject to payroll taxes) and even when we pick the entire tab up ourselves preferential tax treatment can allow us to spend over twice as much as on the private market for a given difference in take-home pay.

The minority left over buy their health insurance from companies exempt from anti-trust legislation that effectively have monopolies in some markets with naturally high rates from adverse selection because the low-earners left over are more likely to pass on health insurance unless they need it.

Then there's ACA....

PhRMA and the AMA (their medical billing code monopoly makes piles of money) wouldn't have it any other way.

Our legislators remain unindicted, although you have to wonder when lobbyists and insurance company executives buy membership in their "hunting club" so they can afford their ranch mortgage on a US Representative's salary or they go from helping on legislation in office to a seven figure lobbying job with the PAC that benefited when they retire.

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