Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher
by rayiner on Monday January 08, 2018 @09:59AM
(#16097115)
> Because the profit made by "curing people" is actually done by keeping others from curing people, via aggressive patenting
It’s not like the treatment was just out there until AbbVie monopolized it. Chron’s disease was medically characterized in 1932. Anyone could’ve come along and developed this treatment and gave it away for free or cheaper.
> lobbying against legislation that would make prices reason able...
That just begs the question of what’s “reasonable.” What single payer does is create a monopsony (single buyer situation). Obviously it lowers prices, that’s what monopsonies do. But like it’s counterpart, the monopoly, it’s economically inefficient.
There's also the fact that public health is not a simple economic market, where customers can simply not buy your product. In a lot of cases, it is a life or death situation, and real human have to be treated, so it should be considered a public service.