Socially responsible capitalism in action

Love the signature.

Good for him. I hope he's able to develop a useful drug, and stay afloat and profit from it, rather than go broke making a point.

WOW! There is a commercial that has been on for YEARS in the US that sayd the best aids drug costs like $0.60. IIRC, that means about $0.30 a pill!!!!

There is a LOT of garbage in the pill industry. They do NOT need colorful graphics, commercials, and ads! Doctors do NOT need "free samples". The super poor should NOT get free drugs. They shouldn't have lobbyists. And CEOs should NOT get a fortune! If a CEO helps out as a chemist/biologist, let them be on the payroll for THAT as well, and get paid accordingly. OTHERWISE, a CEO has NOTHING to do with it!!!! What I am suggesting could save MANY millions of dollars a year! Use THAT to lower the price of everything.

I recently found out that I had a problem hospitals wanted me to take DAYS off of work, and have someone pay a fortune for it! I went to ANOTHER doctor and THEY said I should take a dangerous prescription drug to change the level of a substance in my blood, that is EXPENSIVE. SOOOOO I went to a trusted pharmacist and asked HIM about the second problem. HE suggested I take a cheap "drug" available everywhere over the counter. It is safe, and CHEAP! OK, I took it, for the SECOND problem! I will have to wait a few months to check THAT out, but it had an interesting side effect! The FIRST problem vanished on the FIRST day!

Well, I did some research on the internet! It said that it has been used successfully for treatment of the second problem for over 50 years. And the FIRST? OH, this sounds like a wonder drug! They did ALL SORTS OF STUDIES, and found out a lot of things. They STOPPED! You know why? Because they started creating competing DRUGS. One is a drug that a LOT of people, including some VERY poor and old people, are using!

I guess I am lucky that this is considered an important ingredient, and is available everywhere. The ALTERNATIVE that my pharmacist recommended is a FOOD. It works FASTER, but is less safe. ALSO, a couple companies have SOLD IT as a kind of competitor to the drug I was prescribed. The FDA shut them down! They did NOTHING wrong, but claiming such a benefit opened a door the FDA used! NEVER MIND that it was SAFE and LEGIT!

Steve

I remember this, I was so upset.

There is nothing wrong with making money producing medicine. They can make a billion or more, but in this case it was just sickening.

You guys all see this in a different way than I do.

Martin Shkrelli invested in a company, and knew that he had an exclusive ...in demand...drug.

Smart investing. Then he took the drug to $750 a pill. You guys see that as evil. I see it as sloppy thinking. He shouldn't have raised the price of the drug. He should have paid for a little research, improved the drug in some way, cancelled production of the original drug, and sold the improved drug under a different name.

$750 a pill was ridiculous. But his reasoning wasn't completely flawed. There were other treatments that cost far more than the pill at $750. But these were treatments, not a series of pills. So his justification completely fell apart. But $30 a pill? He could have done that, even with the improved pill under a different name. And his company would have prospered.

And you see the new company as being socially responsible. But they never would have created the new pill, if Martin Shkrelli hadn't been in the news. The company saw a new awareness of the drug, saw a way to capitalize on the news stories, and make themselves the new source. Smart marketing. Smart positioning.

There aren't enough customers that use the drug to make this a real money maker, no matter how much you charge. My guess is that the new manufacturer is using this opportunity to create publicity...or enhance it's market value. What does the company charge for the other medicines it sells? The answer to that question would give a hint as to its motives.


Surrounding every silver lining, is a giant grey cloud. I am that cloud.

This is not socially conscious capitalism, this is the very essence of free market capitalism. If it weren't this way, all of us free market peeps wouldn't be capitalists in the first place.

And do you guys know what allowed this son of a b to jack up the prices so high and still make money? It's not capitalism, it's the government. The 'closed distribution' loophole.

The FDA gives pharmaceutical companies monopoly to generic drugs. Now another company can contest this monopoly by proving that their version of the drug is more effective or is just as effective but cheaper. They need to conduct clinical trials in comparison with the already existing drug to prove one of the two things is true. So far so good.

But, there is a loophole. Now the company who has the monopoly can claim that their drug is so precious that they can't risk releasing it for the trial to the competing firm. This means the challenging company can't prove that their drug is cheaper or better. This claim now goes to court and of course they don't expect to win. They'll usually settle out of court, and even if the other firm declines to settle, in between the time gained between the filing of the lawsuit and when the other firm completes the trial, they'll make a significant profit anyway and can (I'm guessing) always bring the prices down.

Despicable, I know. But, that's what you get when the law is stupid. More government control, shall we?

Sumit.

Update on the CEO who made $70,000 minimum wage for all his employees

Good for them. If their business can support $70K salaries for everyone, that's great. I don't know where the 'socialism' comparisons come from, though.

REI closing on Black Friday for 1st time in push to #OptOutside


http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...tory/74627872/