US buys up world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir

[Hammster]

Except those in the EU.

Eventually you will be able to.

 

[FenderTL5]

..if pharma companies know their drugs will be capped on price, a lot of new drugs will never get tested. Kind of a policy conundrum...

As I see it, if a pharma company accepts public funding for the R&D they should anticipate some controls made to repay the public for their investment.
If pharma wants unfettered control on pricing, don't accept the public funding.
Again, what we have now is socialized research with privatized profits. The taxpayer is getting taken advantage of on both sides of the equation.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Speaking of buying up stock...

Rand Paul reveals in late financial disclosure that his wife bought stock in company behind remdesivir in February 2020

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky revealed Wednesday that his wife in February 2020 purchased up to $15,000 in stock in Gilead Sciences, the maker of the antiviral drug remdesivir.

Remdesivir later became the first drug to be approved for treating Covid-19.

"The fact that he didn't disclose it, and the investigations of other senators for possible insider trading related to Covid didn't trigger him to disclose, it is very troubling," Walter Shaub, a senior ethics fellow with the Project on Government Oversight, said Thursday on CNN's "New Day,"

(That said, this is the kind of borderline insider trading stuff that happens all the time I think in the halls of Congress (as the allusion to other investigations shows). Like those other investigations, ain't nothing gonna happen.)

 

[Brihaha]

Speaking of buying up stock...

Rand Paul reveals in late financial disclosure that his wife bought stock in company behind remdesivir in February 2020

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky revealed Wednesday that his wife in February 2020 purchased up to $15,000 in stock in Gilead Sciences, the maker of the antiviral drug remdesivir.

Remdesivir later became the first drug to be approved for treating Covid-19.

"The fact that he didn't disclose it, and the investigations of other senators for possible insider trading related to Covid didn't trigger him to disclose, it is very troubling," Walter Shaub, a senior ethics fellow with the Project on Government Oversight, said Thursday on CNN's "New Day,"

(That said, this is the kind of borderline insider trading stuff that happens all the time I think in the halls of Congress (as the allusion to other investigations shows). Like those other investigations, ain't nothing gonna happen.)

It must be why Randall is always so loud and confrontational. To distract from his hypocrisy!

 

[Ana the Ist]

U.S. buys up worldwide stock of remdesivir, drug seen as potential COVID-19 treatment

Yay capitalism.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I totally agree. Since one american equals 3 europeans, 5 asians or several hundred africans, it's only right that everything is done to make as many americans survive as possible.

It's as if nations are formed for the benefit of the people of those nations.

What a novel idea.

 

[keith99]

That's a great argument, I'm not so sure I buy it entirely.

A significant portion of R&D is funded by the government through grants and public research projects. Much of the fundamental research is done in academic settings using public money. Pharma companies spend most of their R&D budgets on the "D" meaning pharmaceutical companies are increasingly in the business of running clinical trials and marketing drugs rather than plowing the hard ground for new discoveries.
The costs are high, certainly, but pharma only spends about 10-15% of their budgets on R&D, they spend twice as much on marketing. I can only wonder how much more they spend lobbying congress. In this sense the basic research costs are socialized while the profits are privatized.

The drug being discussed in this thread being exhibit A.
Gilead announced on Monday it will charge U.S. hospitals around $3,120 per privately insured patient for a treatment course of remdesivir. It is estimated in a May report that U.S. taxpayers contributed at least $70.5 million to the development of remdesivir. There is one estimate that Gilead could still profit if they were charging $310 per course (a tenth of what they have announced).

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) condemned Gilead's price-tag as "beyond disgusting."
"Taxpayers provided funding for the development of this drug. Now Gilead is price-gouging off it during a pandemic.. Coronavirus treatment must be free to all."

I would disagree with the 'free' part from Sen. Sanders but a reasonable figure between free and $3120 hovering around $300-500 would seem to be capitalistic and serve the public in my opinion.




(supportive reading linked here)

My bet is that make a profit estimate just counts the direct costs of developing Remdesivir. But that kind of profit is long term disaster for development. The vast majority of development projects lose money. Those costs also need to be covered for a company to make a profit.

It is also the height of madness to subsidise the costs of treatment when there is a huge group of people who refuse to be vaccinated. High costs of treatment is not gouging when people who refused to take basic steps to prevent infection are involved.

BTW the supportive reading link leads to an abstract about using drugs that were originally for something entirely different. That applies to HCQ, but not Remdesivir. An anti viral working against a virus is exactly what its original use was.