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There's a huge hidden cost to price controls through - they don't promote innovation as much as markets do. The US develops over half the world's new pharmaceut
by tastygreenapple 6y ago
There's a huge hidden cost to price controls through - they don't promote innovation as much as markets do. The US develops over half the world's new pharmaceuticals, if we imposed price controls today, we would have fewer life saving medications tomorrow because the companies couldn't afford to do as much R&D.
- watwut 6y agoI think that there are Americans who don't feel like volunteering to pay money they don't have food drugs they need for that.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- gmadsen 6y agowell considering we already subsidize the early R&D for these companies with our University system, and insulin hasn't changed in 50 years, I see no reason we can't price control certain drugs. Could even use this as a guide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Model_List_of_Essential_Medicines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Model_List_of_Essential_Me...
- RHSeeger 6y ago> insulin hasn't changed in 50 years That is false. The insulins sold today are MUCH better than the ones sold 50 years ago. They're much better than the ones sold 25 years ago. Admittedly, the ones sold 25 years ago are effective, but it is much more convenient using an insulin that kicks in in 15-20 minutes and has a relatively short peak than one that kicks in in 30-60 minutes and has a long peak. It's doable either way, but the quality of life is much different.
- renewiltord 6y agoTrivially untrue, right? Recombinant DNA technology is younger than 50 years so we used porcine insulin before that. It'll still work, honestly, if you're up for it.
- Reason077 6y agoIf drugs are too expensive, then at some point more lives/quality of lives are lost because people can't access them than are saved from more drug development. A balance must be found between ensuring fair access at affordable prices, and ensuring fair returns to the pharma industry. This is precisely the goal of pharmaceutical price regulation in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_Price_Regulation_Scheme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_Price_Regulatio...
- heavyset_go 6y agoMuch of drug R&D is funded through the NIH.
- tshaddox 6y agoLet's make sure people in their 20s aren't dying because they can't afford insulin before we start worrying about how to promote innovation in the insulin market.
- golemiprague 6y agoMore people will die if you don't have medicines to solve their issues, blood sugar level is not the only problem young people have. Other countries don't solve the issue by putting an artificial price on it, they just import cheap generic alternatives and use their negotiation power because they buy it for the whole country which is universally insured. The US got bigger insurance pools than many other countries just because of the country size but as people explained before, due to regulations and inefficiencies in the market they can't utilise other cheaper suppliers. At the end of the day, medicines got certain costs to develop and produce and people who buy it have to pay this cost one way or another plus some profit.
- badrequest 6y agoWhat innovation does insulin production for diabetics require?