james1071

This is the best description of what it was all about from the persepctive of Craig Murray.

In contrast, several newspapers have reported information which revealed the identity of one or more accusers, but were not prosecuted.

His approach was never going to work, as doctors do not spend their time evaluating drugs in the way that he imagined.

The typical doctor has minimal training in evaluating medicines - that is not their job.

They defer to so-called opinion-leaders, who are the experts on particular diseases.

These people are the targets of drug companies' marketing - think scientific conferences in 5 star hotels in exotic locations.

The cost of influencing them would be millions.

So,the author was barking up the wrong tree.

That's not to say that he didn't have something, but had no idea how to market it.

If not, then it will be a case of bad rules allowing a bad product to have been used.

The reason why the IRS are challenging FB is that Apple's Irish tax arrangements became public and were very embarrassing to the US authorities, which were revealed not to be applying US law.

Now, to the matter of hindsight.

The essential point is that the transactions have to be a sham to work.

There is precisely no point in selling IP from a US subsidiary to one in Ireland at a fair price. That would just trigger an immediate taxable event in the US for no benefit whatsoever.

The transaction is by design intended to sell IP at a large undervalue and the game was to satisfy the US and Irish authorities, both of which were happy to play along.

The people that you are talking about are effectively lobbyists - policy entrepreneurs is the phrase, who appear in the media advocating for policies that benefit their clients.

Instead you have accepted that you were some kind of idiot and are inviting me to demonstrate my own superior levels of idiocy, which is completely idiotic, isn't it?

What kind of person does that - seeking out complete idiots online?

Once you have rights to your code (and use a lawyer), you should use it for the benefit of yourself.

Open sourcing it is your decision, based on what's good for you.

They are much more heavily taxed than other companies.

There are no caps on profit.

The reason why companies carry large amounts of debt is that debt finance is much cheaper than equity. Given that a utility has stable cashflows, it makes sense for it to use a high proportion of debt finance.

Briefly, since the late 1980s, the market for prescription drugs has evolved from one where pricing was close to list price, to one where pretty much everyone gets a large discount.

(By everyone I mean any kind of insurer or bulk buyer)

The effect is that the market has become completely lacking in transparency, as the discounts are not public.

Also, in many cases, the discounts end up in the hands of middle men, such as Pharmacy Benefit Managers or Insurers.

That suits them very nicely, as these discounts account for a large part of their profit and are hidden, unlike their premiums and insurance plans.