David HoUnfortunately, the drug that prevents HIV infection, lenacapavir, is currently unaffordable at $42,250 for the first year. If it were sold by Gilead for $40 per year, it would still yield them a 30% profit. But I guess that’s not how capitalism works.
Roadskater, Ph.D.@davidho $GILD had a hepatitis drug that flat-out cured people. Their stock value boomed for a year or two when its was in use, then WTF, dropped when they were running out of patients who needed it.
Ash@davidho there should be a profit limit of 50% or smth. Atleast in essential stuff.
ezaquarii
Moté
Peter Brown@petitmote @45h @davidho same in UK and presumably in every other developed country in the world who unlike the USA all have a universal health service.
Ponygirl@davidho Quite likely that Americans paid for the R&D for this medicine. As usual, it's priced out of our reach. Pathetic.
George@davidho The despicable greed of big pharma puts earnings over human lives, these should be deemed crimes against humanity, despite the economic regime your country observes. The needs of the many outweigh the greed of the few, they would still earn a profit.
xs4me2One day it will be the death of us…
Canadian Crone@davidho Pure unadulterated greed.
caitp@davidho seems like something a leftist batch of new congressmen and senators could help with, by getting medicare to negotiate prices and covering more of the pop, including anybody with a need/desire for that drug. that'd be neat
Doreen32128 ready to rumble!
Larvitz 
@davidho death by capitalism 🥺. That would be so easily preventable.
Alexander Miles@davidho The article is paywalled
Isaac Sousa
Jorge Soares@davidho In their defense I believe that they are giving it for free in poorer countries where HIV is still a huge problem. This is basically PrEP that is taken every 6 months instead of daily.
Drug development is a huge investment and most drugs don't even come out to market. Pharmaceuticals don't have the best track record, but in this case I don't see it as a major sin. In alternative to this drug people in the US can access PrEP, use condoms, take PEP if the previous 2 fail and even in the worst case scenario have access to a wide range of medication.
Eventually this drug will be a lot cheaper and available to all.
I would 100% agree with you if it was a cure or vaccine for HIV, but unfortunatelly we are not there yet, and there are loads of alternatives to this drug
Graydon@davidho That is how capitalism works. (Competition, profit measure as the signal for what society finds worthwhile, all that stuff.)
What we've got is a mammonite oligarchy. (If you're a made guy, you are trying to get all the money. If you're not a made guy, you're finding it increasingly challenging to live.)
Important to remember we can stop having an oligarchy or mammonism any time we decide it's time to do something else instead.