Extortion on Our Own Dime

TAXPAYERS PAID TO DEVELOP REMDESIVIR BUT WILL HAVE NO SAY WHEN GILEAD SETS THE PRICE

(WaPo today, 5/27/2020)

        The three paragraphs that follow are excerpted and simplified for brevity from the referenced article:

       A Gilead scientist, Robert Jordan, convinced the company seven years ago to let him assemble a library of 1,000 castoff molecules in a search for medicines to treat emerging viruses. Many viral illnesses threaten human health but don’t attract commercial interest because they lack potential for huge drug sales.

        To make progress, Gilead needed help from U.S. taxpayers. Lots of help. Three federal health agencies were deeply involved in Remdesivir’s development every step of the way, providing tens of millions of dollars of government research support. Now that big government role has set up a political showdown over pricing and access.

       Despite the heavy subsidies, federal agencies have not asserted patent rights to Gilead’s drug, potentially a blockbuster therapy worth billions of dollars. That means Gilead will have few constraints other than political pressure when it sets a price in coming weeks. Critics are urging the Trump administration to take a more aggressive approach.

        Lest anyone think that this is anomalous, this isn’t even unique to Gilead Pharma, but they’re really good at it. This is the same bunch of opportunist rip-off artists who bought the patent for Harvoni, also developed by someone else (a researcher at Emory University) and then marketed it at an original $84,000 per course of treatment for Hepatitis C. By the way, Gilead sells the generic version of Harvoni in India, (not at a loss) for $127! Indians get a life-saving drug at a bearable cost; US Medicare patients, on the other hand, pay Gilead a 6000% + profit. Like Remdesivir and the majority of “new” drugs marketed in the US over the past ten years, the primary research was funded by the National Institute of Health grants on our (as in taxpayers) dime. It’s a shitload of dimes, by the way.  

        This, while Pharma, in general, still fond of citing R & D expenditures, omits the fact that many new drugs are actually developed by university researchers with NIH grants (yep, our money!)  In many cases, not by any means only Gilead, the Pharma company buys the patent from the school or the researcher depending on various criteria, and then simply markets it after secondary testing and FDA approval.

        While, once upon a time, research and development did constitute the bulk of individual drug manufacturers’ operational cost, and they used it to justify high retail pricing, reality is that advertising cost is now the leading balance sheet expenditure for every single major drug company marketing in the USA!  For several, lobbying is actually second, with R &D third. By the way. Only the US and New Zealand in the entire world, allow direct to consumer (DTC) public media drug advertising.

       Big Pharma is fleecing the nation twice. Initially by profiting on drugs whose development was publicly funded then again  because due to the same legislation which created Medicare Part D, (thanks to massive lobbying efforts),  Medicare is required to pay the ludicrous retail price cited by the manufacturer. In plain speak, if you are an American who must use a specialty drug, “bend over”.  You’ll pay either a whole lot more than the drug is worth, or even if your insurer negotiates a better (not “fairer”) price, you’ll have a co-pay plus cost of insurance.

        If that’s not enough, remember that the drug was almost certainly developed with taxpayer bucks! We (the US Government) should own the patent and franchise them to pharma…at a cost. When Pharma’s top ten corporations make 30% NET profit annually, it’s really sexy, and we all know who’s getting screwed.