Obligatory reminder that "negotiations" in this case just means that Medicare dictates a price.
I’d like the Times and the media in general to start reporting the names of the individuals participating in these efforts, instead of faceless corporations.
There is no logical reason that pharma should be on the receiving end of all this hate. Especially considering that their job is literally to save lives.
If I work in an industry where human life depends on it, yes! I entirely agree. This is not a market to corner, regardless of your innovation and how clever you are.
> Especially considering that their job is literally to save lives.
Positive contributions must not lead to “these people can hold those who have medical needs economically hostage.” Don’t like the deal, get out of pharma and let other people (operating under a different ideology on the topic) build.
https://time.com/6257866/big-pharma-patent-abuse-drug-pricin...
> Today, 1 in 4 Americans cannot afford to take their medications as prescribed. Too many seniors are having to ration their treatments to get by until their next social security check arrives. And contrary to what industry lobbyists argue, soaring drug prices are not the inevitable result of research and development costs to bring breakthrough drugs to market. It’s time to put this widely debunked excuse to bed.
https://www.i-mak.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Overpatente...
It means no one will do that work.
DARPA's mRNA research that directly led to rapid COVID vaccine development comes to mind. Cut out the middleman. Fund the research directly. We're paying for the end result one way or another (if not with direct government payment, with government payment to companies who are then taking profit, spending marketing/admin expenses, etc).
You make it sound as if nothing will get done if poor corporations can't lock medical tech up behind economic gates. We can always go back to ruthless capitalism if pharma price controls don’t work.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8426978/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...
Hoping that such actors would appear when needed seems optimistic.
If I don't have food I can't live.
There are any number of industries that people need to live. You really want Donald Trump (or someone just as crazy) dictating what the prices are for those industries?
Especially considering that their job is literally .. "preserved by natural monopoly and law, forever"
If/when the US also stops paying, I expect drug development will stagnate a lot.
Using goodRX has really opened my eyes to the shady practices of drug pricing. The same drug with or without insurance at different pharmacies can range in price by 80+% (often with the higher rate "discounted" for insurance). The drug companies are willing to be this flexible with the prices when dealing with retailers. In the case of a Wal-Mart or Costco the negotiations don't sound so different. So what's the difference with what's happening with the government? It's on public record not in a private corporate meeting room. The business side of Healthcare in this country follows protection racket economics and it doesn't look like this is going to change any time soon.
There is a whole class of ailments that people could cure on their own by getting to a healthy weight, exercising, and not eating garbage. But it's easier to ask your doctor for a pill.
But realistically, from a moral point of view, they can't really walk away in the first place unless the government demands are ridiculously unreasonable (e.g. demanding a price lower than production). The only drugs subject to negotiation are those without generic alternatives (i.e. where a free market doesn't really exist), so stopping supply would quite literally kill people. This gives drug companies an enormous advantage in negotiations in the first place, so this kind of compensates for that.
But you do you drug company.