2y ago

China’s new cancer drug is approved in the US but will cost 30 times more: US$280 in China, US$8,892 in the US

www.scmp.com

US$280 in China, US$8,892 in the US: new Chinese cancer drug gets FDA approval

News @lemmy.world

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2y ago

US$280 in China, US$8,892 in the US: new Chinese cancer drug gets FDA approval

www.scmp.com /news/china/science/article/3243209/cocaine-price-hike-chinas-new-cancer-drug-approved-us-will-cost-30-times-more

United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml

☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆ @lemmy.ml

2y ago

China’s new cancer drug Toripalimab is approved in the US but will cost 30 times more

www.scmp.com /news/china/science/article/3243209/cocaine-price-hike-chinas-new-cancer-drug-approved-us-will-cost-30-times-more

14 comments

At that price you are better off flying to China to get the drug and still have money left over for a nice little vacation while you're there.
- I'm on a drug that costs even more than that. The whole process is bizarre, and appears to be scams all the way down.
  What happens for me is that my insurance covers a big chunk of it, which still leaves me with a bill for thousands of dollars. But the drug manufacturer provides me with a card that covers that amount. So the whole thing costs me $5 out of pocket.
  The aim seems to be inflating the drug prices to an insane degree to extract more money from the insurance companies. Who then fleece my employer for more money. Who then pay me less, as the insurance is such a huge benefit. And I can't afford to lose that insurance, so they have a captive employee. And I'm supposed to marvel at all the money I saved.
  
  Sounds like slavery with extra steps.
- Sounds crazy when you put it that way
Full Text:
- Who is pocketing the price difference:
  Junshi partnered with California-based Coherus BioSciences to bring the drug to the US, and it is expected to become available within the first quarter of next year.
  Gotta love how the US regulatory regime is structured so middle men always get their taste. It's like how the US doesn't produce much in the way of active ingredients, instead US companies import them from China, India, and Poland then package them under their own brand name into pill, capsule, or injectable formulation. During this process the price somehow increases 1,000% to 10,000% over what they paid for the active ingredient.
Ok I got a question. Is there a way other companies can reuse the ingredients/formula for a nonbrand drugs? (example Walmart Great Value for less money)
- Yes, but only once the drug is off-patent. ~20 years.
  IP law is a plague upon the pharmaceutical industry. It doesn't just inflate prices, but it stifles research as groups feel they have to try to avoid each other's parents. Sometimes scientific decisions are justified due to IP rights rather than scientific data. You'd be angered by how often this happens.
  
  And sometimes it takes way longer than that.
  There's even a controversy about whether Google's PageRank algorithm was intentionally developed as a worse version of (future) Baidu's RankDex so they could patent it. The fact that there's any scientific advancement at all under capitalism and the patent system is frankly a miracle.
- In practical terms, sure, that actually happens a lot in other countries. In legal terms, i don't know if it can be done in the US right away or if they have to wait a certain amount of time or jump through god knows how many patent law hoops to not violate the borderline monopoly rights that a lot of these big companies manage to buy for themselves. The US pharma industry is notorious for protecting big corporations from competition by paying lobbyists to get laws that make it very difficult to sell off-brand alternatives.
- Not sure how exactly that works in the USA, but one of the PT's government greatest achievement in Brazil was both providing legislation for selling off-patent drugs (called "generics") and also making those tax free to encourage competition.
  Lots of really important drugs (for example gut worms) became much more affordable in the span of some 5 years.
This is the type of legal subjugation of the American people that goes unpunished, Idk if this makes me sound like a PatSoc or not, but on God, anyone that sees themselves as patriots or proud of where they come from (I’m not personally) should have their piss brought to a boil by hearing this. Conservatives talk about competition in the market as if WE are being given a benefit of choice. Well, here in the US, companies “compete” all they want, they don’t lower insurance premiums, healthcare costs, or fucking anything. We just get drained and drained until someone does something horrific and fucked up and we talk about “mental health” for 2 weeks (not offering up any material condition changes or allowing more people to get in touch w social workers for free/very cheap) and when enough people forget, we act like nothing happened. The American populace is highly numbed to seeing or hearing about domestic terrorism unless it fits a narrative of a Muslim or illegal immigrant. If it’s a school shooting like Uvalde or a public massacre like in Vegas, we send our prayers, put up a link to Mindset .com or some shit to talk about “wellness”
- I swear when they do shit like this it's like they're laughing in your face and taunting you that they can fuck you over as much as they want and you are powerless to do anything about it. Like they could have easily still made astronomical profits just by doubling, tripling, quadrupling the price. But no, they have to send a message about who is in charge.

14 comments