Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

Re:Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectiou... by heisenzombie on Thursday December 26, 2019 @04:54PM (#21887138)

I’m not sure that assertion is borne out by the data: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866602/

I think two big missing factors in your analysis are (1) profit — US drug companies pocketed something around $30 billion dollars this year, and (2) inefficiency - something like $20 billion dollars went into deg marketing in the US for example, which seems to me like almost a complete waste.

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Re:Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectiou... by refurb on Thursday December 26, 2019 @06:51PM (#21887884)

Just measuring profit ignores all the companies who went under because their drug didn’t work. You’re just counting the winners.

And marketing includes things like paying a sales rep to answer doctors questions. Are you saying they shouldn’t do that.

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Re:Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectiou... by Symmetry on Thursday December 26, 2019 @08:53PM (#21888486)

I was under the impression that the biggest driver of marketing costs for drugs was providing free samples of the drug to doctors, with training doctors coming second and advertisements a distant third.

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Re:Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectiou... by refurb on Thursday December 26, 2019 @10:44PM (#21888993)

Depends on the drug and the market. Not all drug have a free sample program, but yes, it can add up since they account for the full price, not cost of goods.

Personnel can be a big chunk as well, since the fully loaded cost of a sales rep can be $400k per year and for primary care drugs, it’s not unusual to have 1,000 reps.

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