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Comment by siliconc0w | Hacker News Reader

It would be easier to squeeze Novo if they included Zepbound from Eli Lilly in the mix - we could argue that if we're going to spend unfathomable amounts on these medications we might as well buy the more effective medication from an American company.

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> It would be easier to squeeze Novo

Didn't Novo pretty much tell congress that the only reason why the high price for Ozempic and Wegovy is the US system of middlemen and that lowering it's prices won't necessarily benefit the patients? The CNN reporting from the hearing is pretty interesting[1]. According to Novo Nordisk when they tried lowering the prices of their insulin product, pharmacy benefit managers dropped their products out of coverage, resulting in fewer people having access to the medication overall.

It's not entirely clear that Novo Nordisk is the company that needs to be squeezed.

1) https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/24/health/ozempic-novo-nordi...

There's no need to spend unfathomable amounts. We just need to establish and enforce the favored nation status if they want to sell their drugs here. No drug (least of all US developed drug) should cost more in the US than it does elsewhere. That's what Trump was proposing in his last term. Because the Congress is corrupt AF, that went nowhere, but maybe we could give it another try now that his mandate is much stronger? As things currently are, we're getting robbed.

Or we can offer to take Greenland off the table /s

It's not on the table in the first place. Trump is just forcing fake news MSM to talk about BS to disorient them and make it harder to attack his transition. Expect more of this - he seems to be advised by someone competent this time.

There's a reason I put a "/s".

It's commonly used to signify sarcasm or a tongue-in-cheek comment.

/woosh

He really is playing 4D chess

What about poor countries? If a drug company had to sell drugs for the same price in the US and a country like Sudan, the result would almost certainly be raising the price in Sudan up to US prices rather than lowering the price in the US to Sudan prices.

That would put the drug out of reach of most of the people in those poor countries.

They can do what India and some other countries do, and legislatively ignore pharmaceutical patents when it comes to public health if drug is deemed unaffordable.

I mean, I don't think you're enforcing patent law in South Sudan regardless, but they're also just not capable of manufacturing such drugs. To get a trustworthy drug, they pretty much have to buy it from the patent-holder. India, China, and maybe Brazil are about the only exceptions. Theoretically, I guess you could say we just expect the third-world to rely on black market medicine from India, but uh, that has some risks involved.

Is it really the black market?

It just sounds like it's sourced from somewhere else like any generic would be.

IMO the state should be able to take away monopolies just as easily as it passes them out in the first place.

They could benchmark the price against comparable countries/regions. Pay no more than, say, 110% of the average cost of the drug in Europe.

If it still has to go through congress you still have the same problem.

This will just make it impossible for poor countries to get drugs.

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