How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying It from India

Re:How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying I... by refurb on Monday May 09, 2016 @12:55AM (#11657706)

What about drugs that cost more than $10 per day to produce? Hell that's only $3650 per year. How many manufacturing plans can sustain themselves on that sort of revenue, particularly if they are creating a drug for a disease that only affects 1000 patients in the world?

One of the reasons why generic drugs prices jumped so much in the last few years, if because manufacturers said "screw this" and just stopped making the drugs because the margins were so low.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How I Got the $84k Hepatitis C Drug for $1500 by Buying I... by tracker1 on Monday May 09, 2016 @02:12PM (#11661873)

The $10/day was for the licensing to the patent holder, not a cap on the cost of the drug to the consumer. This is about reducing patent protections on drugs to 5 years after market, and compulsory license caps after that, in order to encourage competition, not a price cap over production costs in a free market.

Without competition, you get inflated pricing.

[ Parent | on HN ]