ACA Repeal/Replace: Progressives Face Moral Dilemma

[David Horn]

(01-17-2017, 01:05 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: ... budgets for big pharma companies show most of the cost being the trials necessary for FDA approval.  That's what the Japanese bargain not to pay, but if everyone bargains not to pay them, the drugs won't be developed.  (Which would be fine with me, but not so fine with the people that use them.)

Do you know what orphan drug subsidies are?  They are guarantees against competition for "developing" drugs to treat ailments that affect fewer than 200,000 (?) people.  Big Pharma uses this law as an ATM.  Some drugs, widely in use for years, get cited as a treatment for some other illness.  For example, Remicade has numerous orphan cites -- it was originally developed for rheumatoid arthritis.  The rest are free riders.. 

Don't cry crocodile tears for the pharmaceutical industry; they don't deserve it.