308
Well this is a terrible shock in the pharmaceutical industry. Who would have thought?
I am patently flabbergasted.
1000$? It costs 80$ here. Insurance covers the 1mg injection completely. Drug prices on the US market are inflated as hell. Also it can be made for 5 bucks but the decades of research and billions poured into said research and testing is what raises the price.
Regardless corporate greed is corporate greed and big pharma is into some really shady stuff. Especially when we get to biologicals.
In a research driven company, research is a basic operational cost. These are all sunk cost paid for by other products. Before the product is introduced all of the research has been paid for.
So let's take a look at this companies financials.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NVO/financials?guccounter=1
Their cost of goods was 36 billion. Out of 232 billion in sales or around a 85% margin.
It says they spent 32 billion dollars research.
They claimed a profit of 104 billion dollars after spending 2x the total research bill on sales/marketing and admin (62 billion) in other research driven industries this would be around 1/2 research budget.
They still made enough money to pay for more than 3 years of research.
In better regulated industry where greed didn't rule the day. They should be making less than 1/2 the gross income.
This is pure greed based upon people's suffering
Hey, that dude needed a third yacht. Who the hell do you think you are?
Uhg!
Is there more investment/interest/research due to those fat margins?
Nothing significant.
There comes point where tossing more money at at a research topic does nothing. Certain stages in development just take time. There are bottlenecks in the development process that limit the speed.
The thing that drives prices up is greed and marketing.
There is a good chunk of funding for medications that gets federal grant money.
It costs a 1000. Government programs make it 80. And that's good.
Our insurance system IS the government program. The government negotiates prices with the manufacturer. This is also the reason we have drug shortages. Cheaper drugs get re-exported legally by third parties to countries with higher prices. Abbvie straight up made a system where their new drugs would be delivered personally to the individual patient via a personal code to circumvent what happened to Humira.
Tresiba, Insulatard, Actrapid and a couple of other insulins, as well as antibiotics like Augmentin (which is in short supply to begin with) also suffered from re-export until the government issued a temporary ban.
The wholesale companies' response? Stockpile and wait for the ban to expire.
Yeah I'm aware. I'm just saying, someone is paying the bill
They always "face pressure" when they get anywhere near an actually free market.
In other news the Danish government "discovered" an additional 16 billion DKK (2.13 billion EUR) in the budget, solely because of Novo Nordisk's increased corporate taxes.
I'm employed by the Danish government, and I'm getting a 6% raise on my next paycheck. Nurses and daycare workers are getting even more. Our military will actually be getting the NATO required 2% of the GDP. Meanwhile Americans are dieing because they can't afford to buy the insulin... Feels dirty
Can you imagine your national economy being so reliant on one company? If wegowy and ozempic turns out to cause pancreatic cancer then we're fucked.
Hollywood, OF and housewives hoarding all the medicine to look like Jack Skellington. Diabetics always getting fucked by corporate greed.
I've heard about shortages of the drug. Does anybody know how hard it actually is to make or if they're manufacturing scarcity as well?
According to the article they're spending $17 billion to increase production.
If you had goose that was laying gold eggs, wouldn't you try to hatch some?
Engineered Biologics involve having to make special cell cultures off engineered specimens so it's a research forward cost. The actual production is cheap once the cultures are made.
I think if you look deep enough you'll find public funding in a lot of these projects like with Humira, which was funded by the UK Government and is now absurdly expensive as fuck
It's a pretty simple peptide, there's multiple companies in China that make grey market versions.
The scarcity seems to come from the government enforced monopoly, only a single company is officially allowed to make it and they don't have enough machines, I imagine getting more machines takes time.
Governments could issue compulsory licences for shortages like this, but they never do.
I personally know 3 people - who are not diabetic - who are on this drug to lose weight. It's anecdotal evidence for sure, but it makes me think that people are seeing this as a miracle weight loss drug. Which is probably causing the shortages.
The drug is definitely over prescribed I am sure, but surely using it as preventative treatment before the person becomes diabetic is long term better than waiting for them to become diabetic, right?
I don't really know anything about the drug but I know it has helped some people who really need it. It is a shame it is being locked behind patents and shortages.
Biologics are not complex to make once you get the cells farting out the medicine
isn't this the case with like every drug? why is this one special?
celebrities use it
Because the Kardashians are taking it so it currently leads to high click rates
this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024
308 points (98.7% liked)
Medicine
1119 readers
1 users here now
This is a community for medical professionals. Please see the Medical Community Hub for other communities.
Official Lemmy community for /r/Medicine.
!medicine@mander.xyz is a virtual lounge for physicians and other medical professionals from around the world to talk about the latest advances, controversies, ask questions of each other, have a laugh, or share a difficult moment.
This is a highly moderated community. Please read the rules carefully before posting or commenting.
Related Communities
- Medical Community Hub
- Medicine (๐)
- Medicine Canada
- Premed
- Premed Canada
- Public Health
See the pinned post in the Medical Community Hub for links and descriptions. link (!medicine@lemmy.world)
Rules
Violations may result in a warning, removal, or ban based on moderator discretion. The rule numbers will correspond to those on /r/Medicine, and where differences are listed where relevant. Please also remember that instance rules for mander.xyz will also apply.
-
Flairs & Starter Comment: Lemmy does not have user flairs, but you are welcome to highlight your role in the healthcare system, however you feel is appropriate. Please also include a starter comment to explain why the link is of interest to the community and to start the conversation. Link posts without starter comments may be temporarily or permanently removed. (rule is different from /r/Medicine)
-
No requests for professional advice or general medical information: You may not solicit medical advice or share personal health anecdotes about yourself, family, acquaintances, or celebrities, seek comments on care provided by other clinicians, discuss billing disputes, or otherwise seek a professional opinion from members of the community. General queries about medical conditions, prognosis, drugs, or other medical topics from the lay public are not allowed.
-
No promotions, advertisements, surveys, or petitions: Surveys (formal or informal) and polls are not allowed on this community. You may not use the community to promote your website, channel, community, or product. Market research is not allowed. Petitions are not allowed. Advertising or spam may result in a permanent ban. Prior permission is required before posting educational material you were involved in making.
-
Link to high-quality, original research whenever possible: Posts which rely on or reference scientific data (e.g. an announcement about a medical breakthrough) should link to the original research in peer-reviewed medical journals or respectable news sources as judged by the moderators. Avoid login or paywall requirements when possible. Please submit direct links to PDFs as text/self posts with the link in the text. Sensationalized titles, misrepresentation of results, or promotion of blatantly bad science may lead to removal.
-
Act professionally and decently: /c/medicine is a public forum that represents the medical community and comments should reflect this. Please keep disagreement civil and focused on issues. Trolling, abuse, and insults (either personal or aimed at a specific group) are not allowed. Do not attack other users' flair. Keep offensive language to a minimum and do not use ethnic, sexual, or other slurs. Posts, comments, or private messages violating Reddit's content policy will be removed and reported to site administration.
-
No personal agendas: Users who primarily post or comment on a single pet issue on this community (as judged by moderators) will be asked to broaden participation or leave. Comments from users who appear on this community only to discuss a specific political topic, medical condition, health care role, or similar single-topic issues will be removed. Comments which deviate from the topic of a thread to interject an unrelated personal opinion (e.g. politics) or steer the conversation to their pet issue will be removed.
-
Protect patient confidentiality: Posting protected health information may result in an immediate ban. Please anonymize cases and remove any patient-identifiable information. For health information arising from the United States, follow the HIPAA Privacy Rule's De-Identification Standard.
-
No careers or homework questions: Questions relating to medical school admissions, courses or exams should be asked elsewhere. Links to medical training communitys and a compilation of careers and specialty threads are available on the /r/medicine wiki. Medical career advice may be asked. (rule is different from /r/Medicine)
-
Throwaway accounts: There are currently no limits on account age or 'karma'. (rule is different from /r/Medicine)
-
No memes or low-effort posts: Memes, image links (including social media screenshots), images of text, or other low-effort posts or comments are not allowed. Videos require a text post or starter comment that summarizes the video and provides context.
-
No Covid misinformation, conspiracy theories, or other nonsense
Moderators may act with their judgement beyond the scope of these rules to maintain the quality of the community. If your post doesn't show up shortly after posting, make sure that it meets our posting criteria. If it does, please message a moderator with a link to your post and explanation. You are free to message the moderation team for a second opinion on moderator actions.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS