Hedge Fund Manager Raises Price of Medicine From $13.50 to $750 per Dose

[Hugor Hill]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=1

I had trouble copying and pasting properly so go to the link.

Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.

The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?” said Dr. Judith Aberg, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She said the price increase could force hospitals to use “alternative therapies that may not have the same efficacy.”

Turing’s price increase is not an isolated example. While most of the attention on pharmaceutical prices has been on new drugs for diseases like cancer, hepatitis C and high cholesterol, there is also growing concern about huge price increases on older drugs, some of them generic, that have long been mainstays of treatment.

[CanadianLoonie]

Thanks to intellectual property law made possible only by government legislation and enforcement...aka a government-granted monopoly.

[Hugor Hill]

Thanks to intellectual property law made possible only by government legislation and enforcement...aka a government-granted monopoly.

Only you can somehow blame the state for this.

[CanadianLoonie]

What is stopping anyone from reverse-engineering the drug and undercutting him?

[D-Money]

Only you can somehow blame the state for this.

Well, technically a drug patent should only last for 20 years. There are ways of extending that, but 62 years is ridiculous. Shouldn't the state address such flagrant abuse of patent law?

[Hugor Hill]

What is stopping anyone from reverse-engineering the drug and undercutting him?

Patents.

Affordability is a consideration for pricing products. I believe pharmaceuticals who spent the money on R&D to invent drugs should have a limited monopoly for a certain amount of time, but they at the same time don't make them ridiculously unaffordable. If you believe in the copying of intellectual property then you are on your own.

Just because you have a monopoly doesn't mean you have to make it unaffordable or rip off the government.

[D-Money]

Thanks to intellectual property law made possible only by government legislation and enforcement...aka a government-granted monopoly.

On the flip-side of this argument, are you really against patents in general? Do you realize what a blow that would be to R&D budgets?

[TOMapleLaughs]

How is this not illegal? If it's not, it should be.

[CanadianLoonie]

Patents.

And who issues patents and enforces them?

I believe pharmaceuticals who spent the money on R&D to invent drugs should have a limited monopoly for a certain amount of time, but they at the same time don't make them ridiculously unaffordable.

For someone who fears free-market capitalism because of the possibility of monopolies, you display such cognitive dissonance when you seem alright with government-granted monopolies.

Affordability is a consideration for pricing products.

Just because you have a monopoly doesn't mean you have to make it unaffordable or rip off the government.

Well, this monopoly apparently has been authorized by the government, so with no legally-sanctioned competition they can charge whatever they want.

On the flip-side of this argument, are you really against patents in general? Do you realize what a blow that would be to R&D budgets?

I have to simply to be logically consistent in my belief that every law passed by the institution of government is enforced, at it's fullest extent, with a loaded gun pointed at someone.

Which is fine enough if one is pointing that gun to prevent a violent crime, as it would be a defensive use of force...like preventing the theft/robbery of physical property that once is taken away from you, you don't have it anymore.

But "intellectual property" cannot be taken away from you...I cannot "steal" an idea from your brain and have you end up "forgetting" what that idea was, you still have the idea in your head so no crime could have possibly taken place so why should there be law against this non-criminal act?

[elvis15]

What is stopping anyone from reverse-engineering the drug and undercutting him?

Actually very little. One thing that does stand in the way is controlled distribution, which makes it hard for other companies to get it and make their own generic versions, but that is certainly a possibility as I understand it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=0

...

With the price now high, other companies could conceivably make generic copies, since patents have long expired. One factor that could discourage that option is that Daraprim’s distribution is now tightly controlled, making it harder for generic companies to get the samples they need for the required testing.

The switch from drugstores to controlled distribution was made in June by Impax, not by Turing. Still, controlled distribution was a strategy Mr. Shkreli talked about at his previous company as a way to thwart generics.

...

http://youtu.be/37bjahLn0wY

Good god, his arrogance at the very end.

[Hugor Hill]

For someone who fears free-market capitalism because of the possibility of monopolies, you display such cognitive dissonance when you seem alright with government-granted monopolies.

Well, this monopoly apparently has been authorized by the government, so with no legally-sanctioned competition they can charge whatever they want.

You lack context. Medicine patents are there for a reason.

Guess you didn't attend the ethics and marketing classes in business school.

[Hugor Hill]

Actually very little. One thing that does stand in the way is controlled distribution, which makes it hard for other companies to get it and make their own generic versions, but that is certainly a possibility as I understand it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=0

Good god, his arrogance at the very end.

I know what he needs....

[CanadianLoonie]

Guess you didn't attend the ethics and marketing classes in business school.

I have the ethical high ground over you as I do not believe the use of aggressive force is ethical under any circumstances, as demonstrated by this:

I know what he needs....

...as well as you views on taxation.

[Hugor Hill]

I have the ethical high ground over you as I do not believe the use of aggressive force is ethical under any circumstances, as demonstrated by this:

...as well as you views on taxation.

You can have your opinions, but most people would disagree with you.

[taxi]

...alright people settle down.

The patents on this drug have expired.

Also, patents are the only thing stopping large corporations from stealing anyone's ideas. They definitely serve a purpose. I would like to know that if I spent my entire life inventing and marketed something, Coca-Cola or Walmart couldn't just swoop in and sell it for cheaper.

[CanadianLoonie]

You can have your opinions, but most people would disagree with you.

Which would be perfectly fine with me so long as they respectfully leave me alone...which unfortunately for me, they don't.

[Hugor Hill]

Which would be perfectly fine with me so long as they respectfully leave me alone...which unfortunately for me, they don't.

What's the name of the guy who first said vaccines cause autism again? They don't leave him alone either.....

[CanadianLoonie]

...alright people settle down.

The patents on this drug have expired.

Also, patents are the only thing stopping large corporations from stealing anyone's ideas. They definitely serve a purpose. I would like to know that if I spent my entire life inventing and marketed something, Coca-Cola or Walmart couldn't just swoop in and sell it for cheaper.

Sir, without governments, there would not be corporations as we know them today.

And without central bank-issued, fractional-reserved banked, goverenment-fiat currency, they wouldn't be so big like we know them today.

And for a complete reasoning behind why I am against IP laws, this 70-odd page ebook does the trick...

https://mises.org/system/tdf/Against%20Intellectual%20Property_2.pdf?file=1&type=document

[Hugor Hill]

Sir, without governments, there would not be corporations as we know them today.

And without central bank-issued, fractional-reserved banked, goverenment-fiat currency, they wouldn't be so big like we know them today.

And for a complete reasoning behind why I am against IP laws, this 70-odd page ebook does the trick...

https://mises.org/system/tdf/Against%20Intellectual%20Property_2.pdf?file=1&type=document

If you are advocating some kind of anarchic utopian Star Trek like society, then I tip my hat and would just gently remind you that that's not the world we live in.

[CanadianLoonie]

If you are advocating some kind of anarchic utopian Star Trek like society, then I tip my hat and would just gently remind you that that's not the world we live in.

Star Trek is utopian statist.