RE: Drug Executive: It's a moral requirement to charge patients the highest price
September 15, 2018 at 11:57 am
(This post was last modified: September 15, 2018 at 11:58 am by Angrboda.)
(September 15, 2018 at 11:42 am)Anomalocaris Wrote:(September 15, 2018 at 11:09 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: And how exactly would that help?
"The vaccine is calculated to be worth $7 billion had it been patented." ~ Wikipedia
Do you know how much R&D seven billion dollars can fund? How many new and improved medications could be developed?
How much is the financial damage to society resulting from reduction in the numbers of people vaccinated?
To optimize the value of the medical establishment, the advantage of greater investment in medical R&D must be balanced against:
1. the aggregate effect of reduction in accessibility of the fruits of past R&D.
2. the creation of harmful perverse incentives for selectively focusing on those R&D that promises to maximize the revenue to the pharmaceutical industry rather than to minimize the aggregate cost to society of ill health.
Okay. And how do we get there? I don't think asking pharmaceutical companies to just give away their labors like Salk did is any kind of answer. As noted in my last post, lack of profit can equally as well dry up access.