Critics warn new medicines could be lost by reducing out-of-pocket costs. But there are good reasons to be optimistic about future medical research.
It is a harrowing proposition: that in trying to control drug prices for 67 million Medicare patients now, we might inadvertently prevent the development of future drugs that could save lives. Implied, if not stated outright, is that we’re putting a cure for cancer or Alzheimer’s or some other intractable disease in jeopardy.
But we have good reasons to believe that the current policy won’t have such a trade-off any time soon. For one, pharma is hugely profitable, and these negotiated prices, while potentially chipping away at profit margins, should hardly entirely dampen the incentive to innovate, according to a couple of key studies of the industry. Two, if we are worried about future innovation, we should be focused on making it cheaper to develop drugs – and this is actually one area where AI is showing promise. By identifying the best candidates for possible treatments early in the research process, we could speed up development and continue to reduce costs — without losing out on tomorrow’s breakthroughs.
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Miracle drugs are almost exclusively funded, or heavily subsidized, by the public sector. Typically through NIH grants, or other public funding mechanisms through the University system.
R&D budgets for a big pharma go to things like reformulating existing brand name drugs, to prevent them going generic as they are supposed to under current law. Or other high return, reduced effort, drugs i.e. new dick pills, narcotics, etc.
Executive pay and bonuses are not going anywhere, no matter what happens with these drug prices. They will cut their company to the bone, and then collude with private equity to take them private and gut it, before they ever considered cutting down their bonuses or stock options.
Assuming lower prices were mandated in the future, what is their alternative? Develop zero new medications and subsist on the current drugs they offer with soon to expire patents? I doubt their competitors will be sitting idly by waiting for their eventual demise. Their argument is so superficial.
This is just like Uber and Lyft threatening to pull out of markets when the taxes go up a bit. The horror, they'll have slightly shittier margins and can't survive with slightly less profit
Science isn’t a miracle. It’s the hard work of scientists. Perhaps pharmaceutical companies should be required to operate with the same transparency as nonprofits.
How could they possibly derive profits from drugs nearly wholly theorized and funded through government grants? Think of the shareholders and their inability to siphon your taxes into their pockets! Think about them often, especially when you pass by their offices visible through brittle glass. Let them know your feelings.
They aren't wholly theorized and funded by the government.
By far the most expensive step of drug development is the phase 3 clinical trial, the final stage before a drug can be released. The government doesn't fund those at all. Government mostly funds pre-clinical trials (ie in animals or tissue culture) which are way cheaper.
The average government grant for a biomed research proposal is nearly $600,000.
The average phase 3 clinical trial costs $20 million.
This hits the point already. Look at those weight loss drugs that help people lose weight and are needed by certain other people.
Look at all the celebrities all of a sudden on them and regular people's insurance won't cover them. The regular folks who need them have trouble getting them as a result.
Let's not conflate the business side of pharma and the science is pharmacology. The main reason we don't have new antibiotics is mostly due to the evolutionary arms race against bacteria that quickly develop resistance typically within a year.
No conflation. It's both. It's because everything is privatized / sacrificed on the altar of capitalism. Yes, bacteria evolves quickly, but that doesn't explain the huge gap in development efforts. It's a complication, definitely. But, I reject the idea that this is the primary reason. More like an excuse.
The idea that better drugs will be discovered by AI is laughable, though. It can help the search, but it can't predict the trial outcomes well. The system is too complex, and we don't have the data.
Trust me bro. One time I saw an ai claim that it's possible to make lsd out of sodium chloride and distilled water. It was ai generated so it must be true.
half of budgets for pharma companies is spent on marketing. Discourage that and they will be forced to spend more on R&D.
You can pass a law to ban pharma commercials on the grounds that prescriptions should be prescribed by doctors. You could also simply tax marketing spending as though it were the same as profits, applying corporate taxes to marketing spending.
Big pharma is full of shit. And the fact that they are admitting that the only way they'll look for a "miracle drug" to extort sick people's money by grossly overcharging is if they can extort sick people's money on current drugs by grossly overcharging is fucking disgusting. They all should be hung.