“Corporate rip-off:” White House slams Big Pharma’s drug price reform attacks

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afidel

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PhRMA apparently lives in opposite land or a mirror universe or something because patents are a limited monopoly, in no way does that lead to lower prices in our universe and collective purchasing that lowers the power gradient between seller and buyer always lead to lower prices for the buyer.
 
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238 (239 / -1)
Citation needed.
Uh, read the rest of the article? That's what price negotiations do. Private insurance can do that to keep down costs. Medicare should be able to as well.

Jeez. Why do conservatives always think that logic invariably leads to wrong conclusions?
 
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179 (190 / -11)

Sajuuk

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
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I don't know why people are continually surprised at the amorality of corporations. There's absolutely nothing weird or surprising about a company lying to protect its economic position.

Yet here we are, time after time, pretending to be shocked that companies do exactly what they're incentivized to do.
 
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162 (166 / -4)
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I don't know why people are continually surprised at the amorality of corporations. There's absolutely nothing weird or surprising about a company lying to protect its economic position.

Yet here we are, time after time, pretending to be surprised that companies do exactly what they're incentivized to do.
Maybe because corporations are "people" too?
 
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52 (58 / -6)
I don't know why people are continually surprised at the amorality of corporations. There's absolutely nothing weird or surprising about a company lying to protect its economic position.

Yet here we are, time after time, pretending to be shocked that companies do exactly what they're incentivized to do.
I don't think people are so much surprised by the general behavior as the general sense that there's no pretense of doing what's best for customers/consumers/citizens anymore. The gloves are off and things are very quickly spiraling into a 1984 situation where titans of industry have the balls to say "No, negotiating prices can ONLY result in higher prices" and know that 40% of America will not only accept that incredibly stupid (and condescending) explanation, but will also excitedly parrot that on their behalf for free.
 
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sasenach

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I work in a partial pharma company and I’m of the mind that there should be a time frame in which the patents have to be used and marketed, and if they’re not marketed in that timeframe then the patent should be stopped/turned over to generics. If they don’t use them and just sue companies getting too close then they’re not far off the domain of a patent troll.

Edit.. in their defence maybe there are multiple patents to one product.. I’m less familiar with the US approach
 
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Surtrus

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Uh, read the rest of the article? That's what price negotiations do. Private insurance can do that to keep down costs. Medicare should be able to as well.

Jeez. Why do conservatives always think that logic invariably leads to wrong conclusions?
I'm 100% on your side, but in fairness to the OP, if it is true that drug prices have actually come down as a result of the IRA, that should be easy to prove with a list of the drugs and the before and after prices.
 
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67 (69 / -2)

Sajuuk

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
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I don't think people are so much surprised by the general behavior as the general sense that there's no pretense of doing what's best for customers/consumers/citizens anymore. The gloves are off and things are very quickly spiraling into a 1984 situation where titans of industry have the balls to say "No, negotiating prices can ONLY result in higher prices" and know that 40% of America will not only accept that incredibly stupid explanation, but parrot that on their behalf for free.
I hate to tell you that this ship literally sailed in 1981 when America elected "Greed Is Good" and never looked back.
 
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96 (101 / -5)

Fatesrider

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Citation needed.

Edit: I don't mind the downvotes, but I have not seen any drug prices dropping in my lifetime.
It's not what you see that has the effect. What you're NOT seeing is astronomical prices and increases in your insurance policies and out of pocket expenses that would accompany the costs that Big Pharma is trying to extort from the government.

After a series of decisive court losses, the pharmaceutical industry appears to be taking its fight against Medicare drug price negotiations directly to the people—and the White House is not impressed.
Oooo... can I have a say?

How about we trim the salaries of CEO's, cap profits to 5% plus inflation and tell these fuckers "NO!"?

Failing that, let's just nationalize the whole ball of wax and tell them to fuck off, we, the People, will do it ourselves.
 
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On Wednesday, PhRMA then announced an "educational campaign" on how the US intellectual property system "is actually the vehicle for lower [drug] costs."
I am a patent attorney. This assertion by PhRMA that patents lower drug costs is so absurd that it is mind-numbing.
 
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thekaj

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I’d like to be able to laugh at this effort. But considering ISPs were able to convince half the country that net neutrality would limit their freedoms (or something), and given the comment sections on stories about fighting drug companies to lower their prices to something close to what other countries pay always have people chiming in to defend the drug companies, I’m not at all confident that people in general are smart enough to see through this.
 
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99 (100 / -1)
It's not what you see that has the effect. What you're NOT seeing is astronomical prices and increases in your insurance policies and out of pocket expenses that would accompany the costs that Big Pharma is trying to extort from the government.


Oooo... can I have a say?

How about we trim the salaries of CEO's, cap profits to 5% plus inflation and tell these fuckers "NO!"?

Failing that, let's just nationalize the whole ball of wax and tell them to fuck off, we, the People, will do it ourselves.
Any politician not speaking roughly what your talking about is basically noise to me at this point.

Capping pay of the these clown should be priority 1
 
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24 (27 / -3)

pnellesen

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That is actually just wild. "Up is down. Black is white. Bringing prices down raises them up, and the things designed to keep prices high push them down! Cats and dogs living together!"

Time to nationalize those thieving bastards.
We've always been at war with Eastasia
 
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55 (55 / 0)
Big Pharma pricing has surely killed people who are trying to avoid bankrupting their families. Their obscene profits are literal blood-money, and Stephen Ubl looks like the literal devil himself.

I was trying to place why he creeps me out; and I think it's the strong resemblance to the G-man from Half Life.

"That's why I must now...extract...from you some small repayment owed for you own survival."
 
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I'm 100% on your side, but in fairness to the OP, if it is true that drug prices have actually come down as a result of the IRA, that should be easy to prove with a list of the drugs and the before and after prices.
Well an obvious example is insulin, which is now capped at $35 per month for those on Medicare. The price negotiation doesn't start until 2026 though so too early to see effects from that.
 
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vidsurfr

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Citation needed.

Edit: I don't mind the downvotes, but I have not seen any drug prices dropping in my lifetime.
My son needs insulin, the co-pay has gone down 67% since Biden’s been in office. Of course, the orange turd is taking credit for that so I can see why you are confused.
 
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145 (146 / -1)
Citation needed.

Edit: I don't mind the downvotes, but I have not seen any drug prices dropping in my lifetime.
Google is the friend of the sincere.

One example: The Inflation Reduction Act requires drug companies to pay rebates to Medicare when prices increase faster than the rate of inflation for certain drugs. It also caps the cost for Medicare recipients.

There are others, but I'm not terribly interested in trying to be comprehensive.
 
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RichyRoo

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That is actually just wild. "Up is down. Black is white. Bringing prices down raises them up, and the things designed to keep prices high push them down! Cats and dogs living together!"

Time to nationalize those thieving bastards.
I reckon R&D should be handled by government funded labs and the pharma companies can just manufacture and distribute.
 
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24 (30 / -6)