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Ex-hedge funder buys rights to AIDS drug and raises price from $13.50 to $750 per pill

We're just mad because we didn't think of it, didn't have the means to pull it off, and don't have access to the kind of cash or influence it would take to finagle it such that we could charge this chap $70 an ounce for water or air for the rest of his existence.
 
SFSV650 said:
We're just mad because we didn't think of it, didn't have the means to pull it off, and don't have access to the kind of cash or influence it would take to finagle it such that we could charge this chap $70 an ounce for water or air for the rest of his existence.
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You might be, but I'm not. I'm disgusted by his greed, period.

:dunno
 
SFSV650 said:
We're just mad because we didn't think of it, didn't have the means to pull it off, and don't have access to the kind of cash or influence it would take to finagle it such that we could charge this chap $70 an ounce for water or air for the rest of his existence.
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Bay Arean said:
This guy is a posterboy for socializing drug production or at least mandatory drug price controls.
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I don't entirely agree. This case is a poster boy case for fast tracking new drugs and revising the patent process.
 
Bay Arean said:
This guy is a posterboy for socializing drug production or at least mandatory drug price controls.
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I hope that isn't going to be the knee-jerk reaction to this situation. How many drugs would never be developed if this were the case? Paclitaxel, for example, would probably not be part of the arsenal of cancer treatments if there had been some arbitrary price cap. Basically, researchers would have to throw up their hands and say, "well we know this is a potent anti-cancer agent, but with the price controls, there is just no way to produce pharmaceutical-grade stuff on a commercial scale."
 
Holeshot said:
I don't entirely agree. This case is a poster boy case for fast tracking new drugs and revising the patent process.
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This isn't a new drug nor does it have anything to do with patents.

It is a poster case for why our regulations are so screwed up.
 
I'm not sure I have a problem with commercial business getting out of drug discovery all together.

As reported by PBS,
The federal government popped the cap off drug spending on Thursday, detailing doctor-by-doctor and drug-by-drug how Medicare and its beneficiaries spent $103 billion on pharmaceuticals in 2013.
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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/medicare-reveals-much-spends-prescription-drugs-americans/

Take some of that money, fund research at the university level publish results in pier reviewed journals thus making it public domain. Produce the drugs overseas by generic makers and let those who need the drugs realize the cost savings. We the taxpayers are already footing the bill for Medicare. Are we getting what we pay for?
 
CoorsLight said:
I hope that isn't going to be the knee-jerk reaction to this situation. How many drugs would never be developed if this were the case? Paclitaxel, for example, would probably not be part of the arsenal of cancer treatments if there had been some arbitrary price cap. Basically, researchers would have to throw up their hands and say, "well we know this is a potent anti-cancer agent, but with the price controls, there is just no way to produce pharmaceutical-grade stuff on a commercial scale."
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You know, Coors, my ex-wife works for Bayer. For years and years I have heard the R&D funding argument to support capitalism in drug development. I ponder all these people suffering from various ailments and having to pay huge prices that are simply national-border derived (to wit, Candaian pharmacy pricing) and I just have run out of credulity on the topic. Seriously.

Incredible suffering goes on in this world and astronomical drug prices just seem cruel to me. If the industry can't control itself, then it's bound to be stepped on by governments around the world.

And they can take their marbles and go home, but they just won't.There has to be a balance, a compromise on this..
 
Mike95060 said:
Satisfy my internet vengeance, duh.
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the guy is already being sued by his old company for 65M, does that help?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/arlenew...artin-shkreli-for-65m-his-reply-preposterous/
In 2011, Martin Shkreli—then 29 years old and a rather outspoken manager of the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management—attracted some acclaim when he started his own biotech company, Retrophin, and began pursuing therapies for rare diseases. He served at the helm of Retrophin until last fall, when the company ousted him, later alleging that he improperly passed off legal settlements with MSMB investors as consulting agreements. Now Retrophin is taking the dispute with the controversial entrepreneur a step further.

Retrophin filed a federal lawsuit against Shkreli on Monday in New York alleging that he created the biotech and took it public solely to provide stock to MSMB investors when the hedge fund became insolvent. The suit seeks more than $65 million in damages and a requirement that Shkreli disgorge all the compensation he received from Retrophin during the time he acted as a “faithless servant” to it, as the claim reads. Turing Pharmaceuticals, another biotech startup that Shkreli founded this past February, is not named in the suit.
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Bay Arean said:
You know, Coors, my ex-wife works for Bayer. For years and years I have heard the R&D funding argument to support capitalism in drug development. I ponder all these people suffering from various ailments and having to pay huge prices that are simply national-border derived (to wit, Candaian pharmacy pricing) and I just have run out of credulity on the topic. Seriously.

Incredible suffering goes on in this world and astronomical drug prices just seem cruel to me. If the industry can't control itself, then it's bound to be stepped on by governments around the world.

And they can take their marbles and go home, but they just won't.There has to be a balance, a compromise on this..
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If there are to be pricing controls, it should be executed on a drug-by-drug basis in a single payer healthcare system. Factors like need, efficacy safety, etc., based on clinical studies can guide pricing at launch. Pricing can then be revisited as more patient data is collected, and as alternatives are introduced.

Capping prices for drugs before there are even drugs is totally absurd.
 
gnahc79 said:
the guy is already being sued by his old company for 65M, does that help?
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Honestly not really. I want this guy to get it on a real emotional level. I want him to see life as more then just profit and loss. I won't hold my breath.
 
CoorsLight said:
I hope that isn't going to be the knee-jerk reaction to this situation. How many drugs would never be developed if this were the case? Paclitaxel, for example, would probably not be part of the arsenal of cancer treatments if there had been some arbitrary price cap. Basically, researchers would have to throw up their hands and say, "well we know this is a potent anti-cancer agent, but with the price controls, there is just no way to produce pharmaceutical-grade stuff on a commercial scale."
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Agreed. Anyone who thinks socializing drug development would lead to better health care is kidding themselves. It might be cheaper, but it wouldn't be better, because many, many therapies would never be investigated, much less developed and the costs/decisions would become a political football/nightmare.
 
If the government bought a profitable drug line for $55M and kept the price where it was, and kept it profitable, it would be a bit of chump change I'd be willing to pay taxes toward.
 
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