But there is a very important flip side to that. Something like 9 out of 10 new drug trials end in expensive failures. Take away the profit motive and soon there's no more new drugs, period.
“Something like 9 out of 10 new drug trials end in expensive failures. Take away the profit motive and soon there’s no more new drugs, period. “
The cost of these drugs is driven by regulation, not drug related costs. Suppose you run a drug testing firm. You give a substantial donation to a connected politician and he writes a law requiring that your patented test be used on all drugs. You can now charge whatever you want even if your test does nothing to verify anything about the drug. That’s just one example.
Many foreign drugs never come to the US because the cost of getting certified “safe” far exceeds any money they’d make. Drugs to treat rare diseases exist but nobody will pay to have them certified.
Government is screwing us far more than they are keeping us safe. It’s government and crony capitalists who rake in the money. Drug companies run a distant third.
I have been in small molecule pharma and bio-pharma for 37 years, both in generic and proprietary product development.
It costs us 100’s of millions of dollars for product development before going into clinical trials. Those trials also cost millions.
Just bringing a product to first in human testing is incredibly difficult and takes years of $$$.
After clinical approvals, then there is the process development for the actual large scale manufacturing, new equipment, qualifications of the mixing, filling and stability programs...etc.
It costs big $$$ to bring these life saving drugs to market, comply with US and GLOBAL regulatory testing requirements and the maintenance of the product over time.
The real costs of healthcare are caused more by the regulations we have to comply with than the actual cost of the active pharmaceutical ingredients too.
G