Hacker News Reader

Comment by edmundsauto | Hacker News Reader

Because there is no actual theft going on? Are you suggesting that local “legitimate” users pay higher costs to recoup R&D expenses? I’d love to hear the evidence - it sounds a lot to me like the “piracy is theft” argument which has not been proved or well supported.

View on HN

> Are you suggesting that local “legitimate” users pay higher costs to recoup R&D expenses? I’d love to hear the evidence

Yes ? Are you suggesting they that comes out of pharma profits?

> it sounds a lot to me like the “piracy is theft” argument which has not been proved or well supported.

No because not taking medication isn't an option like not watching a pirated movie.

Perhaps a closer analogy is shoplifting . Sure some amount of stealing is accounted for in the system but large scale shoplifting gets passed on to consumers.

Friend, I still purchase them from companies that manufacture the drugs.

Just not through the non-free American prescription drug market.

There is a reason why patents have time limits.

I think the pricing is based on the maximum amount each individual can bear, independent of costs. If your hypothesis was accurate, we should see prices go up when sales go down (independent of the cause of the sales drop). I don't think that is clear, but open to evidence if you have it handy.

There might be a long term impact where fewer drugs are developed because there are lower profits, but even that feels awfully close to the "piracy hurts creative industries" argument that has been proven inconclusive at best and directionally wrong at worst.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com