Are We at the Dawn of “Insulin Socialism”?

Re:Are We at the Dawn of “Insulin Socialism”? by moshun on Monday August 15, 2022 @03:32PM (#32474220)

I've spent some time volunteering my expertise with the Open Insulin team (fantastic group of humans) and my experience is that while the effort is very worthwhile and necessary in the current corporate pharmaceutical environment, the reality is that this medication should be price regulated at the governmental level.

The "free market" has (once again) failed to provide anything more than wild overpricing and forced rationing of a drug that costs literally pennies to make. In this case, the situation being exploited is so cut and dry that it's hard for most reasonable people to debate it in good faith.

Hearing and understanding the real stories from people affected by this disease really makes you furious that some of our smartest people solved this problem, and the only reason we're still discussing it is because unethical people seeking endless capital grow don't care if people die.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Are We at the Dawn of “Insulin Socialism”? by kurupt213 on Monday August 15, 2022 @04:25PM (#32474917)

Medicine will never be a free market because it isn’t subject to free market forces. Demand isn’t related to supply, and price isn’t related to either.

These aren’t consumer goods. People buy them because they are told they need them

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Are We at the Dawn of “Insulin Socialism”? by jschveibinz on Monday August 15, 2022 @05:56PM (#32475967)

I appreciate your activity in helping to bring insulin prices down.

For clarification, I want to add that the free market is working best when there are hundreds of suppliers as opposed to just one or even a handful of suppliers. In that light, more people taking up the challenge to manufacture insulin without taking a profit would be a good thing and could reduce prices significantly. I am too old, otherwise I would consider doing it myself. Many universities have scientists working on fermentation of genetically modified bacteria and yeasts. The resources and expertise are out there.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Are We at the Dawn of “Insulin Socialism”? by drekk on Monday August 15, 2022 @10:16PM (#32478491)

Or we could just cut out the middleman of private insurance like most of the developed world? I don't want 100 competing brands of insulin — I want my NovoLog and I want it at cost.

[ Parent | on HN ]