• i_have_no_enemies@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    my dad is refusing to take vaccines because he thinks taking it will automatically make him vote dem because of nano-machine in them.

    he also thinks vaccines are kind of HRT.

    anyways how’s your day?

    • tym@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Sounds good. In the meantime, I’m going to buy some Pfizer stock for my kids sake.

        • tym@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s optimistic tbh. More like my comment is the result of 2 decades of fighting the good fight only to watch those I’m trying to help dig a deeper hole. Time to tend my little patch of grass, build a sturdy fence, and hope for a renaissance.

  • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    While I’m sure there is a crazy markup, it’s important to note the cost to produce - as in manufacture - does not include the cost of drug discovery, which is extremely expensive and involves a good amount of risk over a long period of time.

    You can’t just compare the cost of discovering a new drug vs. cost of producing a generic without any research like that.

    • clausetrophobic@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Fuck off with the big pharma apologetics.

      Boo hoo the corporation got millions in taxpayer money to develop a vaccine and now they have to profit off of it. I feel so bad for them.

      This is subtle astroturfing.

      • LufyCZ@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Are we talking about the vaccine here? Sounds like a post-exposure drug to me

    • Sprokes@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      That’s just an excuse because many drugs are sold at prices much lower what they are sold in the US. They are not selling them at loss in other countries.

      • LufyCZ@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Definitely not at a loss to produce no, but maybe a loss overall.

        My bet is that the US subsidizes R&D by paying obscene amounts for the drugs and the EU and others just serve as extra income

        • Sprokes@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          That’s what they make you believe. Why American still pay high prices for insulin? It doesn’t cost that much to produce. It just those companies are paying politicians to keep things in their advantages and give you those excuses.

    • SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yes we can. It’s just doesn’t give a good faith assessment of the situation. And why would I want to do that if it’s counter to my rigid world view? sigh better add an /s

      • piecat@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There is some level of R&D they do to productize it, manufacturability and scaling. And running drug safety trials cannot be cheap, especially the liability insurance.

        That all said, I think it’s criminal that the university labs pay so little. PhD students barely make over $40k, set by the NIH. Not adjusted for CoL either.

        I think I have more of an issue with the for-profit nature of pharma companies. Shareholders shouldn’t be involved in medicine.

    • uis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      AFAIK some US agency did R&D for COVID, they just bribed sponsored Right People

  • anon_8675309@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Didn’t the government fund the development? So… it’s not like they need so much to recover R&D right?

    • Isakk86@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Welcome to the United States. Everything is subsidized, then turned around to fuck the average person.

    • MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The government did not for Pfizer. That was Moderns. Pfizer did spend billions of their own cash. This move is largely because the executive leadership way overestimated the amount of covid vaccine and drug treatment revenue for this year, and they are desperate to make up ground.

      So they are raising prices and cutting across the board rather than admitting they didn’t know what they were doing in their projections. CEO isn’t taking a pay cut though. Morons got a winning lottery ticket in the pandemic and assumed they’d keep winning every year.

    • Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      I know they funded moderna - they basically built Moderna’s new plants including their cmo’s plant so that they could produce at scale. Govt built and funded the plants at risk - prior to fda approval - so that it massively sped up the process to getting the drug in people’s hands. Those plants are now used for other drugs.

      I think - but not 100% sure - Pfizer did it on their own.

      Still - 10,000% is shameful.

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m fine with the public-private partnership but money like this needs to come with strings attached. We should’ve made an agreement to cap the price. We developed these drugs under the Trump administration so I really don’t think the impact to poor and middle class citizens has ever been a thought in his mind.

    • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Much better strategy: you take the medicine… survive… and refuse to pay in protest. Sure, you might get sued for non-payment of bills… then a bunch of people can fight a class action lawsuit against pfizer.

    • PilferJynx@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I get the anger. We really need to fully socialize these medical development centers. But on the other hand, they did most of the work. They didn’t have to.

      • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m sure the research was publicly funded, and the profit will be private as is tradition.

      • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yep, that Pfizer for you, using taxpayer money to R&D drugs they will use to price gouge the public who paid for it, out of the kindness of their hearts.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ll never understand why so many people think middlemen somehow makes shit cheaper…

      Taxes > government research > cheap meds

      With the bonus point of no more pharmaceutical companies selling shit like oxy for profit

      • VinnieFarsheds@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Because they think government is inefficient by default, and a commercial business is motivated towards max efficiency to cut costs. Maybe all of this is true, but in capitalism companies also sell for the optimal price based on price elasticity. No competitors + essential live saving product = high prices.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      People vote for it every two years and are shocked, just shocked when they get precisely what they voted for.

      • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Do you think pfizer and other companies who spend hundreds of millions lobbying would be like “aww shucks! the public voted to curb our shitty behavior, let’s go home!”?

  • AMillionNames@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Seriously, people are acting like this is new. There is no sense in shaming them we’ve had it brought to the mainstream by people like Martin Skhreli and nothing has been done. Martin Skhreli himself is only in jail because of his ponzi schemes, a.k.a. screwing other rich people out of their money. The only reason Pfizer was praised was because it was needed in a time of need and because they hired plenty of lobbyists.

    • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ive accepted this behavior as typical and standard issue human nature.

      That is why i am mot having kids, seeing that extinction is the best future for humans. Evolution puts any other intelligence in the universe at risk.

  • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    It’s been too long since the aristocrats were reminded that they need us more than we need them and that they can’t hire enough of us to stop the rest of us once we take an idea to mind.

  • Nobody@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Don’t ever think for a second that pharmaceutical companies did anything during Covid for our benefit. They were working their actuarial tables to figure out how they maximize their profits in the future against sick people dying.

    • Redrum714@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It does make companies more willing to invest more into drug research , which is a good thing.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Drug research is overwhelmingly publicly funded. Private R&D is a PR myth we were fed to justify high prices.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            No. Those two statements don’t go together like that. They aren’t making big new drugs. At most they are looking for ways to adjust the formula so they can extend patents. There is no amount of profit that makes them willing to do more R&D.

      • Sunforged@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Covid treatment was publicly funded. This is a case of public funding going to research and private companies profiting from it.

        Everyone should be outraged from the situation. This cheap treatment is being denied to the majority of the world’s population because of patients, and so covid has more opportunities to mutate and make everyone less safe.

  • lom@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Isn’t it just this expensive because the government can’t negotiate prices? So the insurances will pay a normal price but when the government is paying it’ll cost more

    • OutsizedWalrus@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      No, it’s expensive because the value it provides.

      They’re positioning it based on the length of hospital stay it prevents. In that perspective, this is an absolute bargain. For the most part, they’re selling insurance that $1.4k is far cheaper than even one additional night in the hospital. Insurance is willing to pay because it saves them loads of money. For uninsured and underinsured, it sounds like they’re basically not charging.

      • Canuck@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Only point I’d add is drugs cost more than they are to produce because of R&D costs, which must be recuperated. If costs are high, and volume is low, it means larger markup over the cost to manufacture.

  • PigsInClover@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m allergic to Paxlovid; taking it makes my neck and head swell up to where I look like Rocky Balboa after a fight and my neck feels like a giant tree trunk.

    This isn’t important, but it’s probably the first time I’ve seen an article about Paxlovid since that happened, so it’s all I could think about for a minute.

    I guess I’m not surprised that this is happening with one of the few very essential drugs that isn’t in the list of medications that congress is negotiating prices down on for medicare.

    Of course pharmaceutical giants use any opening, opportunity, or loophole to exploit those who are sick. Disgusting.

    • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m allergic to Paxlovid; taking it makes my neck and head swell up to where I look like Rocky Balboa after a fight and my neck feels like a giant tree trunk.

      Are you aware of which part of it that you’re allergic to?

      And have you heard of if others have the same allergic reaction?

      • PigsInClover@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No, my doctor just had me take Benadryl to see if the reaction started to calm down. When 12 hours later it had, he had me stop taking Paxlovid completely and I didn’t finish the pack.

        I know anaphylaxis is definitely a reported reaction of Paxlovid, but I have no idea how prevalent it is.

        This page on Paxlovid by the NIH mentions it under Monitoring and Adverse Effects.