I was thinking along these same line when creating a price point. I knew someone who suffered from this and they were told it would cost about $250,000 which included a liver transplant. They had the cash, but a suitable donor never came up and they died while waiting for one.

If they could have been cured for $84,000 they would have considered it a bargain.

A friend of mine was told to get an eye treatment or they would go blind. After consulting several other Doctors and hearing the same thing they decided to go for it at a cost of $15,000. No insurance coverage on this since the treatment was not on the insurance companies list of covered items, but they can see today and considered the fifteen grand as cheap.

It's all relative.

I can hardly wait for the tv commercials . . .

God I hate those things. Right up there with ambulance chasing tort lawyers.

That says you're watching too much daytime TV (attorney ads aimed at "stay at home" audience) and TV in general (pharma ads are the largest tv commercial ad segment.)

Only the US and New Zealand allow direct to consumer drug advertising. The Nielsen Co. estimates that there's an average of 80 drug ads every hour of every day on American television.

It's the only reason news shows like 60minutes, NBC nightly news, etc. exist; selling medicine too old folks. "Ask Your Doctor" is a powerful frase.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

I'm kind of in the middle on this one. I totally understand the concept of ammortizing R&D costs over the number of doses produced. I also understand that it might be difficult for them to accurately project the number of doses that will be sold, so that they can do such ammortization and put an accurate and fair recovery of these costs into each sale.

That said, I would like very much for them to be forthcoming with their R&D costs in the interest of fair disclosure.

One other element in some of these cases is how the Federal grant money might have factored into funding of their R&D. How much of the research was actually done by a university or medical school as a research project specifically funded by Federal Grant money.

You want a private company to publicly disclose their research and development costs to all including their competitors? Not very free market of you.

On average it takes 8 years and $150 million to get a pesticide (herbicides, fungicides and insecticides) from inception, through EPA approval and to market. When you consider that any molecule with potential is patented before moving onto the next stage of development, that leaves the remaining 7 years under the patent to recoup the costs and make some profit.

If there is enough demand, there is comparatively little cost after that in getting the product labeled for use in other countries which is often why they are available for less money in other countries.

And that's only to keep a golf course green or vegetable crops protected. I can only imagine the increase in costs involved in a product that's going directly into the human body.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

How many people will die because they cannot afford the drug? I think this is the biggest reason we need to figure out a way to get the profit out of medicine.

According to WHO there are about 150 million people with Hep C. Even if you only sell the drug to 50% at $200 a pop (for a full course) that's over $15 billion if my math is correct.

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Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

In a capitalist system, companies exist to make a profit. If Glaxo is forced into making unprofitable drugs, they are free to switch to making other stuff. Hopefully not Uro parts though.

As much as I despise the Gordon Gekkos of the world for wanting to buy Bluestar to raid it's pension fund....it's perfectly legal.

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

I understand that is the current system. What I am saying is that the current system is broken and needs an over haul where profit is taken out of the equation or at the very least reduced. People should not have to face the question of whether they eat or get medicine.

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Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

Are you suggesting that big medicine should hire the past CEO's and CFO's of GM and Chrysler. They know the secret on how to take the profit out of an industry very well.

I guess with such a limited black and white POV that would be the only other option.

__________________
Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

It's sad to have to laugh, but I guess a grown man is not supposed to cry.

Hmm... You speak as if You think I was proposing that they be REQUIRED to disclose. I suggest that you read more carefully. Of course I do realize that this could easily just be more of your effort to rile me up.