"Our cancer-killing pill is like a snowstorm that closes a key airline hub, shutting down all flights in and out only in planes carrying cancer cells," says the professor who has been developing the new drug over the past 20 years.
I’m from a country in western Europe, and our pharmacies are running low. My dad was told several times over the last months that they’re out of stock and he should come back next week. Sure, the price here might be okay, but Pharma seems to prefer selling it more expensively elsewhere.
They’re probably creating artificial scarcity to increase the prices elsewhere on account of “supply and demand”. There’s a special place in hell for them.
Insulin is worse though because it’s not like it’s a drug that had to be developed and has a billion dollars or more to develop. The case with insulin is blatant price gouging.
This pill, this doesn’t mean it should be as cheap as insulin as the two drugs aren’t equals. It can be priced fairly and still be expensive, we don’t know the economics behind it. Being cheap =/= fair pricing all the time. Like buying a better product that took more to make.
This could still be outrageously priced obviously, but comparing it to insulin is apples to oranges.
depending on how you count, even less than 4 steps
all starting materials are commercially available and probably pretty cheap
i’m not gonna talk down a molecule that’s easy to make, but there may be room for modifications, should it be discovered that these are beneficial. this may or may not make synthesis a little bit harder or more expensive but at any rate not impossible
You are doing exactly the thing the person you are replying to is calling someone out for, so if anything you are underlining the point. Pharmaceuticals is a vast industry, and the matter they work with is not homogenous.
You cannot infer from the cost of insulin to inhabitants of uncivilized western countries what the actual cost of providing a still in-development medicine will be. More specifically, you cannot expand from being ripped off in one country for one medicine and the myopic view that provides to pharmaceuticals as a whole.
As a counterpoint in your case, I pay nothing for my insulin, as its included the base medical insurance everyone has to have. As are a vast amount of other pharmaceuticals.
I gave an example of a treatment style pharmaceutical that has been used consistently to boost corporate profits rather than serve the greater good. Would you like to talk about the cost of epipens next? How about the opioid industry?
A pill that treats solid tumours would be an enormous boon to humanity. You’re letting really tired cynicism get in the way of basic logic. This argument would mean that insulin wasn’t a breakthrough, because it didn’t cure diabetes.
For profit pharmaceuticals is indeed a huge issue, but it’s one that is entirely separate from whether or not a given medical treatment is good or not.
grumble grumble Look at this big pharma scheme that allows people to live longer! grrrr I’d rather die from cancer than let big pharma take my hard-earned dollars!
You speak like someone whose never had to buy insulin before.
Which is cheap or free in literally everywhere except the country of free. It’s US problem, not industry.
I’m from a country in western Europe, and our pharmacies are running low. My dad was told several times over the last months that they’re out of stock and he should come back next week. Sure, the price here might be okay, but Pharma seems to prefer selling it more expensively elsewhere.
I live in the US, my wife couldn’t find test strips for over a week.
They’re probably creating artificial scarcity to increase the prices elsewhere on account of “supply and demand”. There’s a special place in hell for them.
Insulin is worse though because it’s not like it’s a drug that had to be developed and has a billion dollars or more to develop. The case with insulin is blatant price gouging.
This pill, this doesn’t mean it should be as cheap as insulin as the two drugs aren’t equals. It can be priced fairly and still be expensive, we don’t know the economics behind it. Being cheap =/= fair pricing all the time. Like buying a better product that took more to make.
This could still be outrageously priced obviously, but comparing it to insulin is apples to oranges.
it doesn’t look very advanced or hard to make honestly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOH1996
What is the indicator in the article that the compound is trivial to produce?
its structure, it’s like 4 steps from widely available building blocks, all routine things (amide couplings, one palladium coupling or SNAr)
source: me, i’m an organic chemist
depending on how you count, even less than 4 steps all starting materials are commercially available and probably pretty cheap
i’m not gonna talk down a molecule that’s easy to make, but there may be room for modifications, should it be discovered that these are beneficial. this may or may not make synthesis a little bit harder or more expensive but at any rate not impossible
Ty
You are doing exactly the thing the person you are replying to is calling someone out for, so if anything you are underlining the point. Pharmaceuticals is a vast industry, and the matter they work with is not homogenous.
You cannot infer from the cost of insulin to inhabitants of uncivilized western countries what the actual cost of providing a still in-development medicine will be. More specifically, you cannot expand from being ripped off in one country for one medicine and the myopic view that provides to pharmaceuticals as a whole.
As a counterpoint in your case, I pay nothing for my insulin, as its included the base medical insurance everyone has to have. As are a vast amount of other pharmaceuticals.
I gave an example of a treatment style pharmaceutical that has been used consistently to boost corporate profits rather than serve the greater good. Would you like to talk about the cost of epipens next? How about the opioid industry?
A pill that treats solid tumours would be an enormous boon to humanity. You’re letting really tired cynicism get in the way of basic logic. This argument would mean that insulin wasn’t a breakthrough, because it didn’t cure diabetes.
For profit pharmaceuticals is indeed a huge issue, but it’s one that is entirely separate from whether or not a given medical treatment is good or not.
grumble grumble Look at this big pharma scheme that allows people to live longer! grrrr I’d rather die from cancer than let big pharma take my hard-earned dollars!