LacyGreenfelder
Dr. Lucky Tran 
A new drug described as “the closest we have ever been to an HIV vaccine” could be sold for $40 a year and still make 30% profit, but is currently being sold by pharma companies for $42,250. Absolutely criminal.
woof@luckytran that's the thing that irked me with that Martin Shkreli guy. for all the warranted lambasting he got in the media, what he did was essentially standard industry practice -- yet nobody seemed to point that out at the time. and despite as egotistical and naïve as it was, he did say he was willing to give out his drug to the forty or so people who needed it. it was all just flak.
Mori@luckytran “Criminal” is putting it very very nicely.
jj the Santa Barbarian@luckytran isn't Gilead owned by a friend of Ivanka's baby daddy?
RejZoR@luckytran Why make 30% profit when you can make 30000% profit?
Jack Sparrow@luckytran ‘based on the costs of lenacapavir’s ingredients and manufacturing, ’-- the cost in research and development is not taken into consideration. Unless the public funds R&D for new drug development, you cannot ask pharmaceutical companies to consider their cost to be just ingredients and manufacturing.
ClickyMcTicker@jacksparrow @luckytran The public does fund the research, in part. Not enough to stand on its own, which means that the actual cost should fall somewhere in the middle.
Public research funding and pharmaceutical prices: do Americans pay twice for drugs?
In the debate over prescription drug pricing, some pharmaceutical industry critics claim that U.S. taxpayers pay twice for costly therapies, because publicly supported research is a major contributor to drug discovery and American taxpayers are inadequately ...
Jerome Haltom@ClickyMcTicker @jacksparrow @luckytran
How much did the public fund THIS particular drug, though?
Konstantin Weddige@jacksparrow @luckytran in fact, it is quite common for the public to fund the research for new drugs. But that doesn't even matter: if you look at Gilead's profits as a company (R&D is there already included) they are still around 20% of the revenue.
Bruno Rohée@jacksparrow @luckytran lots of people dont get that the price is even more than R&D for the medecine amortized + ingredients and overheads. The winners (meds that get to the market) somehow must pay for all the R&D of those that don't. A fair economic model is a very hard thing to find, but the Guardian simplistic take doesn't help. The "it can be made cheaper if more people take it/it got to be cheaper for more people to take it" conundrum is hard to solve...
goaty goats (she) 
@jacksparrow @luckytran considering how much gilead avoids in taxes i imagine it wouldn't hurt their pockets
lea@jacksparrow @luckytran so you're saying that securing profits of a company is more important than saving millions of human lifes
it's insane that the pharma industry is even allowed to patent life saving treatments like this
it's insane that the pharma industry is even allowed to patent life saving treatments like this
:labrys-xf-p: HighPriestessTerra :labrys-xf-b: 
@lea @luckytran @jacksparrow saving lives is more important than making money. Some things are not and should not be profitable, but should still be done bc it is the right thing to do
njsg@jacksparrow @luckytran ... but those are the costs of producing the drug, and thus are the costs directly involved in determining whether there is a profit.
I'd say it's not so much about ignoring R&D costs where these exist, but really just that, what you take into account to determine the price at which selling the drug provides a profit.
Amira Magdalena@jacksparrow @luckytran it is a good thing the price reduction is only requested for low income countries then isn’t it?
grin
Michael Busch@jacksparrow @luckytran
There are many millions of people who would benefit from more effective HIV prophylaxis.
Gilead wants to sell lenacapavir at $42,000 per year.
It did not spend anything close to the order of magnitude of $100 billion to develop the drug - estimates are of order $1 billion.
Stop trying to defend or excuse a company trying to price-gouge a drug by a factor of hundreds.
Sasyecat
Morten@luckytran You can't use US drug prices for anything. It's not what insurance companies pay, it's not what public programs pay, and it's not even what consumers pay on their co-pay since there are programs to cover part or all of your co-pay.
And this twice a year injection hasn't even been approved yet.
Semi Sentient AI Cooling Water@luckytran We need more scientists who are also anarchists. Capitalism is a death cult.
The Bitch King of Angmar 
@luckytran Use those new shiny executive immunity powers, force them to make it reasonably priced, take the savings and fund ecoterrorist groups.
Two birds, one stone.
Mike Malaska@luckytran Y'all looked at the structure of that molecule? It's truly gnarly. They probably found a beautifully elegant process route to that...but wow. Not simple.
Deus@luckytran
The headline of this article was amended on 23 July 2024 to reflect that, although the lead researcher said it was “as close as we’ve ever been to an HIV vaccine”, lenacapavir is a drug rather than a vaccine.
Scott Williams 🐧@luckytran A 3000% markup on a life saving drug is mind boggling.
SearingTruth"Humane healthcare is achieved when the rich and the poor receive the same treatment."
SearingTruth
sebsauvage@luckytran
I truely *HATE* these kind of misleading titles.
It's absolutely NOT about a vaccine in any way, it's a new kind of PREP. 😤
I truely *HATE* these kind of misleading titles.
It's absolutely NOT about a vaccine in any way, it's a new kind of PREP. 😤
Rachel Lawson@luckytran $40 is a profitable price for a generic version, that’s basically just manufacturing and distribution costs.
What about the cost of development? Not just of this drug but all the ones that didn’t make it through attrition?
Where does the developer recoup development costs?
What about the cost of development? Not just of this drug but all the ones that didn’t make it through attrition?
Where does the developer recoup development costs?
BoneHouseWasps🔶🇬🇧🇪🇺@luckytran Not just criminal but morally repugnant.
ValAndi@luckytran
Capitalism kills.
Capitalism kills.
Antonio Páez 🇲🇽🇨🇦"Your life is on our hands. All your money are belongs to us."
— Gilead
In the neo-feudalism that modern capitalism has devolved into, some of us are forced to pay a rent just to stay alive
🌿Mouse-Friend🌿@luckytran Meanwhile, in Cuba, their own HIV vaccine is available free as part of the nationalised health service. 👀
Violet MadderThat's some vampiric shit right there.
refraction 
@luckytran we should void patents and treat pharma execs as the monsters they are. those who willingly give up their humanity for monetary gain should no longer we welcome in society.