) light on the pharmacartel.....http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/messa ... php?id=207
SiCKO
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marathonmedic
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ScrmnPeeler
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What does he want, the government telling companies they can only profit x percetage of the R&D they expend on a drug? What about the drugs that fail to get approval or don't work. Would that money get to be counted as well?
The theory of evolution is just as stupid as the theories of gravity and electromagnetism.
As if the R&D costs has anything to do with drug prices. As with oil the price is "as much as people can possibly pay."
[size=75]You are as bad as Alan, and even he hits the mark sometimes. -charlie
"Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservative." - John Stuart Mill[/size]
"Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservative." - John Stuart Mill[/size]
Two issues here. First, companies will continue to try to make as much money as possible, wether they are taxed a little or a lot. The Bill O'Wanker comment that if taxes were raised he would just close up shop on some of his businesses doesn't fly in the real world. Corporations (and individuals) will claw and scrape for every penny they can, even with various limits or taxes.Saxman wrote:What does he want, the government telling companies they can only profit x percetage of the R&D they expend on a drug? What about the drugs that fail to get approval or don't work. Would that money get to be counted as well?
Second, and more importantly, the issue is not that the government might set some sort of limit on their profits. In reality the problem is exactly the opposite. In the US, consumers are not nearly well enough organized, while corporate interestes such as the pharmaceutical industry are extremely well organized. They have tons of lobbyists with lots of cash to hand out. If the market was working, then consumers would push back and limit the profits that big pharma was making because all those dollars come out of our pockets. Instead, the well organized industry and their lobbyists are preventing the market from doing its job. A great example is the way that Medicare has it's hands tied when negotiating drug prices. There's no good reason for this - it's simply the power of the industry to buy the congress. Don't get me started about how they abuse the patent system to counterproductively 'protect' their drugs or how their lobbyists interject these sorts of screwed up intellectual property schemes into international aid agreements...
Bingo. I wish I could name names, but an old climbing buddy used to manage pharmaceutical sales reps. Damn but they waste insane amounts of money on sales and marketing. She would tell me about some pretty shocking stuff they do. The government is endlessly clamping down on sketchy shit that they do, and the reps are endlessly coming up with new sketchy ways to more or less bribe doctors into writing their drugs. (anyone here care to explain what 'off label' means....?) I couldn't avoid hearing conversations about running clinical trials that would do nothing to improve actual patient outcomes. Rather these trials would generate data that would make it easier to sell doctors of particular specialties on their drug. (How much would you bet that the costs of those trials would be claimed as R&D?)Alan Evil wrote:As if the R&D costs has anything to do with drug prices. As with oil the price is "as much as people can possibly pay."
Another great example is all the Dr. Jarvik ads for Lipitor. Basically, if you actually need Lipitor and you have to ask your doctor to get it, your doctor shouldn't be licensed. But yet, they are spending millions upon millions running those totally useless DTC ads.
I'd love to see the pharma industry 'vetically disintegrated'. Basically you'd have pure R&D companies, pure manufactruing and distribution companies, and pure sales and marketing companies. I suspect that most of the money would be in the sales and marketing, not in R&D.
Bacon is meat candy.