Sure, just write the drug’s name on a piece of paper, throw it in the ocean, fly to another part of the ocean, take out a cup of seawater and drink it down.
The guy is a scumbag and so are his apologists. The patent process allows the researchers to get some return on their investments. Once it goes generic, the free market will keep the price reasonable except in rare cases where a little used generic drug is made by only one company. I think it could be fixed by a simple regulation whereby if only one company makes a generic drug their price must be limited to production costs plus a reasonable profit.
I don’t think you’re a scumbag and I don’t think anyone’s throwing out the baby with the bath. The drug was developed long ago and the research presumably was paid for by the users during the life of the patent. For someone to come along now and buy the only company making this now generic drug for the sole purpose of raping patients has nothing to do with researchers getting paid for their efforts.
He’s the guy who bought sole rights to a drug and then hiked the price 5000%.
Here (image) is the Cracked summary, with helpful devil horns.
As for my response, I haven’t heard any counter opinions. The only defense I’ve seen is “Well, he can”, which is basically nothing; implicitly conceding that it may be immoral but anyway, that’s business.
The only other defense I can imagine is that it might encourage investment into pharma, but I don’t think that would stand up (it wouldn’t defend his individual action for one, just suggest there might be good consequences).
“The Daily Beast reported Monday that in response to outrage over Daraprim’s new price, Shkreli had tweeted that it was “a great thing for society” and tweeted lyrics to an Eminem song referencing giving the media the middle finger.”
“Other sides of the argument” are out there, but “asshole” seems to be a completely accurate characterization.
That would not be a case of government policy being set punitively because we don’t like this guy; it would be a case of government policy being set so that sick people who need the drug to survive do not die because they cannot afford it.
In an even more egregious example of the pricing BS Americans put up with, manufacturer Valeant increased the cost of heart-rhythm drug Isuprel by 500%. A single-ml went from $215 to over $1300.
***Isuprel is over sixty years old. *** I can’t find the exact date of its release, but I did find a 1949 article about its use for asthma in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Disgusting. How much more do we have to put up with as a country before saying enough? Will it take pitchforks and torches and the guillotine? Because I’m personally getting to that level of anger.
