The CEO candidly stated the other factor used to set the drug's price was "the benefits it provides patients." In other words, this drug might save your life. How much in your bank account? Are your credit cards maxed? Got a 401(k)? We'll wait.
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Sure drug companies need to turn a profit. And yes, profits on drugs have to also fund development of other drugs. But when a product is literally life & death, market forces are at odds with morality.
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Economics state a product's value is what a willing buyer will pay for it. This works for cars, computers, clothes, vacations and all the other mundane stuff of consumerism.
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But when your product is literally someone's life (or the life of a loved one), the market price is "all you've got."
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"Your kid has cancer? Tough break. If you can scrape up a couple hundred thousand, let me know."
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Absent regulation, these sorts of miracle drugs and therapies can be priced to the point only the wealthy can afford them.
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Only a society which equates wealth with virtue would find it moral to let the market decide life & death. "Your kid got cancer? Bet you wish you'd gone into investment banking rather than teaching!"
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This may be the fundamental moral question of our time. Do we still believe all humans have intrinsic worth independent of their economic value? Or are humans only valuable to the extent they can contribute through work and consumption?
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End of conversation
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While this is a clear abuse, it also highlights the difficulty of manufacturing API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) in an FDA compliant fashion. We are going to see more examples of this as well as shortages based on consent decrees and other compliance issues.
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Look into “Moral Capitalism” - the idea that value has components other than physical and economic factors.
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