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A comment on Dean Kamen: Healthcare Debate "Backward Looking". Parent comment

Re:Dean Kamen: Healthcare Debate "Backward Looking" by asmithmd1 on Friday August 07, 2009 @04:39PM (#748499)
"A price control in Canada is effectively subsidized by US consumers of a given drug" I think that is the crux of his point, if the US didn't have these crazy high prices - then the drug would not have been developed.

I liked this quote: "Every drug that's made is a gift from one generation to the next because, while it may be expensive now, it goes off patent and your kids will have it essentially for free."

The high cost in the US is paying for the R&D that makes the drug possible

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Re:Dean Kamen: Healthcare Debate "Backward Looking" by blasdel on Friday August 07, 2009 @05:25PM (#748578)
The drug companies spend almost nothing on R&D, not compared to what they spend on consumer advertising, marketing to doctors, regulatory compliance, lobbying, civil defense lawyering, and patent lawyering.
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Re:Dean Kamen: Healthcare Debate "Backward Looking" by yummyfajitas on Friday August 07, 2009 @11:21PM (#748930)
Typically 15-20% of their expenses are spent on R&D. The cost of marketing is also about 15-20%. This is roughly the same as any large tech company. Compare Merck and Johnson&Johnson to Google or Intel.

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:MRK&fstype=ii

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:JNJ&fstype=ii

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:INTC&fstype=ii

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:GOOG&fstype=ii

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Re:Dean Kamen: Healthcare Debate "Backward Looking" by profgubler on Friday August 07, 2009 @10:05PM (#748866)
Marketing does not raise the cost of Healthcare and medicine, but those lawyers you mention sure do.
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