DUers angry at new Hepatitis C drug that costs less than 1/6 as much as a liver transplant

wordpress ^ | July 25, 2014 | Dan from Squirrel Hill

[Hugin]

You are confusing cost and price. The price is what it is because US patent law gives them exclusive use of their intellectual property which allows them to recoup the cost. But other countries don’t. So the price is low. That doesn’t make the same drug produced elsewhere inferior.

[eyedigress]

Apparently, these people at Democratic Underground would prefer that this new drug had simply never been invented.

The children at the DU do not have the ability to reason. They say if it exists, it should be free. Just ask one why communist Russia or China didn't invent it already and watch their head explode.

[grundle]

Ha ha! Thanks for those links. The titles alone are hilarious!

[grundle]

Thanks for the link.

[grundle]

Thanks for your kind words.

[grundle]

If the cheap version could be imported into the U.S. from Egypt, then it probably never would have been invented in the first place, as it would not be profitable.

[grundle]

Eventually the patent will expire and a cheap generic version will be available in the U.S.

[TigersEye]

:-)

[norwaypinesavage]

"You are confusing cost and price."

You are the one who is confused. The cost of drugs is not simply the production cost. The production cost of most drugs is essentially zero. It is negligible compared with the cost of approving new drugs for sale. The price must also allow recovery of all of the costs associated with the drug development. You are simply discussing the production costs.

A complicating factor is the fact that the patent must be issued long before the drugs are approved for sale. This leaves far less time for the development costs to be amortized before the patent runs out. Longer patent protection times would actually REDUCE the consumer price of the drugs.

[RoosterRedux]

I know, I know - the gov’t should develop them, right?

Perhaps we should turn drug development over to the VA...or to the IRS.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Cheap is relative. This stuff is hard and expensive to manufacture, so unless subsidized, it would likely stay over $10,000 for a course.

[PLMerite]

“Just ask one why communist Russia or China didn’t invent it already and watch their head explode.”

Exactly. I don’t recall North Korea or Cuba contributing much to the world except criminal mischief.