Or because biotech companies charge what insurance companies will bear for them?

Monolocal antibodies require a complex and expensive process of cell cloning there are only a handful of labs capable of producing these and non of these can scale up production to anything close that is needed for a large scale epidemic not to mention a world wide pandemic.

This is still cutting edge biotech used for experimental treatment for cancer and other diseases often getting an orphan drug or other exemption certification to go on the market.

You also will be hard pressed to find insurance companies to cover these atm.

The parent comment mentioned existing therapies. As in drugs like Humira, PD-1 inhibitors, PCSK9 inhibitors. No doubt they are complex to produce. But I was doubting that the costs of production are the reason why these drugs are expensive. Companies will charge what payers will pay. See Humira [1]: many times more costly in the US than in the UK.

1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalimumab

> Or because biotech companies charge what insurance companies will bear for them?

Do you actually have any evidence that substantiates your claim? Wild speculations and conspiracy theories should not have a place in discussions regarding serious matters.

Your tone is really weird. No conspiracy is required in the case of a single company setting prices on its patented medical discoveries.

Since you're so critical of conspiracies, though, I'd (genuinely) love your take on something that does require a conspiracy:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/opinion/cost-insurance-di...

(For me the Google amp link brought up the full article.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/opin...

).

Without a conspiracy, what keeps any drug company from selling cheap generic insulin in the United States?

The reason I ask is that I really don't think so many companies can cooperate on price-fixing so I am looking for any other alternative explanation besides an illegal price-fixing conspiracy which I think would be very difficult to pull off among so many players and laws making it illegal.

But the comment you replied to isn't like that and doesn't require a conspiracy.

You might be surprised:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysine_price-fixing_conspira...

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/worldbusiness/12...

https://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/igamisugaya_1...

That’s just a few, and just the ones they caught. It’s very hard to prosecute this case, and the incentive to collude is huge.

Interesting links! Thank you.

See Humira [1]. Costs more than 5x more in the US than the UK. I’m not speculating on what a potential anti covid drug will cost; I’m talking about existing mAb therapies. And I didn’t think it a controversial point that drug companies charge as much as they can while their therapies are still protected by patents and, in the case of antibodies, manufacturing expertise.

1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalimumab

Making a claim without providing evidence is different from "wild speculations and conspiracy theories".

If there is no evidence to substantiate or support the claim then it falls deep in the wild speculation category.

And the comment is quite literally a theory on how someone is conspiring.

No, you're being intellectually dishonest.

> No, you're being intellectually dishonest.

Asking for evidence that supports a hefty claim was never, at any point in time or space, dishonesty. It's in fact the basis for the scientific method, and the basis for laws against libel and slander.

Throwing personal attacks like yours, however, particularly while intentionally turning a blind eye to the lack of substance or support of a few claims based on a conspiracy theory, speaks volumes about you.

That isn't speculation; it's just a factual statement about how capitalism and a free market works. Prices rise to the level people will bear.

The price would rise to $0 then?