“This was an unexpected victory in a long fight against an illegal cartel of three corporations who have raised their insulin prices in lockstep.”
The Biden Administration pleasantly stunned health care reform advocates Tuesday by including short-acting insulin in its list of 10 drugs for which Medicare will negotiate lower prices, power vested in the White House by the Inflation Reduction Act.
The IRA was passed in the face of one of the heftiest barrages of lobbying in congressional history, with the pharmaceutical industry spending more than $700 million over 2021 and 2022 — several times more than the second- and third-ranking industries — much of it aimed at stopping the legislation, watering it down, or undermining its implementation.
They need to find a way to negotiate the price down for everyone, not just retirees. Kids need insulin.
And after that, epi pens.
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That is really great news. Thanks!
I buy my epipens illegally. I was without insurance for a little bit and instead of paying $650, I found a person on Reddit that sold me 2x for $50 and I’m still in contact with that person today whenever my pens expire or I use or lose one. I still go that route with insurance because damn the man. Not like that makes a difference to them, but it makes me feel better hahaha.
I’ve always wondered why those that might need an epinephrine shot don’t keep a vial and needle on hand. A vial of epinephrine goes for about $35. No judgement, just genuinely curious.
You ever try to draw from a syringe while you’re hypotensive, gasping for breath, and panicking as you’re about to pass out? That’s the primary innovation of the epi-pen. Remove cap, stab through clothes, press button.
Granted, syringe and vial would be better than not having epinephrine though.
You can prefill the needle and keep it in a pencil case. Syringes work fine through clothes, although not ideal.
I’m an insulin dependent (T1) diabetic. I keep a glucagon kit on hand in case of an emergency. It’s a syringe and vial that needs to be mixed. The idea is that if you’re unconscious, someone that is close can administer. If I were severely hypoglycemic I’d have problems, but my partner wouldn’t. I could pull it off if it were prefilled, but you can’t prefill glucagon.
Edit: I totally get it and agree though. Life saving medicine shouldn’t have any barriers.
You have to be careful about what tissue you put the epinephrine in. If you don’t hit the right tissue, it can not function or cause you to go into tachycardia. When your brain is also potentially not working super great due to low blood pressure (the shock part of anaphylactic shock), it’s best to have a point and click interface.
Where are all of the “think of the children” folk? Not important now that they’re born.
“If you’re pre-born, you’re fine. If you’re preschool, you’re fucked.” – George Carlin
Except even that isn’t true, because those “choose life” assholes don’t give two fucks about poor women without insurance being unable to afford pre-natal care. If your fetus dies from something preventable, fuck you lady.
Don’t worry, they’re too busy actively using children as pawns to fuck over the Internet, labor laws and trans people.
DARK BRANDON HAS ARRIVED
The pharmaceutical industry spent $700 million lobbying against this? What a bunch of assholes.
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A great way to tell that a business is making way too much money is when they can afford to hire monkey cages full of lawyers to fling every terrible legal argument they can think of at you in the hope that one of them somehow sticks.
It is more cynical than that. They want to out spend the resources available to fight them, not win a legal case.
I don’t think they’re going to outspend the federal government though.
They don’t need to. They need to outspend the specific attorney’s dept. Plus, many are counting on a change in administration before any consequences of merit.
One thing that bothers me about the law. This kinda thing. There should be some sorta limit on how many arguments you can present. Multiple bad arguments does not equal a solid one.
And yet in every other country where they have to bargain against a centralized healthcare system, they are able to provide a decent price.
The US needs to take decisive action against these sociopaths.
The companies argue that the talks would force drugmakers to sell their medicines at huge discounts, below market rates. They assert this violates the Fifth Amendment, which requires the government to pay reasonable compensation for private property taken for public use.
It will be interesting to watch this shake out, because this decision could have a lot of knock-off effects when it comes to further price negotiations by the government across a wide array of sectors.
“Below market rate”
If only looking at the USA where pharmaceutical companies are free to do as they please, but probably still higher than in any other rich countries in the world.
Yeah I think that’s going to end up being a pivotal distinction here, as these are companies with global reach and thus “market rate” will be a difficult concept to defend.
Exclusivity contracts would be one thing, but suggesting this is an egregious step by the US government is going to be a difficult case to prove imo.
Their proof will be with “vacations” etc for the judges sitting the trial.
Charge what they please. They are heavily regulated in what they can do. Which is why stuff like the J&J arsenic event is a once a decade thing vs a constant thing.
They likely are subsidized by the federal government anyway. As far as I’m concerned, any time the government gives money to a corporation, they’re no longer a private company until they pay it back.
Market rates aren’t reasonable compensation.
Just reading this it looks like they had this in their back pocket for a while lol
Oh yeah, lawyers start preparing these lawsuits as soon as an announcement is made (in this case the legislation being announced). They just don’t file them until absolutely necessary.
The suits also argue that the process violates drugmakers’ free speech rights under the First Amendment, essentially forcing companies to agree that Medicare is negotiating a fair price.
Sure Jan. 🙄
But doesn’t medicare already negotiate prescription drug prices? Or am I thinking of something else?
" Wealthy residents raise $60,000 to stop homeless shelter being built in San Francisco", was a headline last week.
It’s not just an 'industry" thing. It’s a "people"thing
When your reaction to poor, sick human beings getting the medicine they need without losing everything else in their lives is disappointment, you’re a bad person.
Fuck market capitalism and the sociopaths it creates.
Edit: and of course they’re actively suing from their steel towers for the right to continue to gouge sick, poor people deeper into poverty. What a humane economic system, amirite?
Watching the anime called “The Great Cleric”. It’s pretty accurately describes this in a fantasy setting.
Both parties have let them do just that for 43 years. Of course they’re gonna sue. Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if a lawsuit becomes an excuse for Democrats to throw out exceedingly beneficial legislation like this.
They don’t let them do it, both parties are fully in the tank for the owners.
Americans mistake are going after our politician middle managers in Washington. Our oppressors operate out of Wall Street. The RNC and the DNC don’t promote you to federal level races unless you’ve proven to be a good “fundraiser” aka bribe taker, making the only potentially not purchased Congress people spoilers that jumped the line and succeeded like AOC.
Our system, imho is fucked beyond any hope of repair.
Either Collapse or revolution is inevitable though Collapse is far more likely as we’re a cowardly people.
I don’t know how this is a negotiation…big pharma overcharges the USA by a lot…we all know it. How is this not illegal? Why are they not held accountable for inflating prices for 1 group of people? Imagine if they did the to just a single race…black, white, Asian, whatever… Is t it the same thing?
I thought the issue was that it wasn’t legal for the gov to negotiate prices?
big pharma overcharges the USA by a lot
A single months supply vial of insulin cost less to manufacture than a child’s Happy Meal
It’s not illegal because it isn’t illegal to set a price that the market can bear.
They’re not increasing prices for just one group of people, which may or may not be illegal, but rather setting a price for a given product.
This is the crux of why this has been such a tough nut to crack.
Meanwhile, those same companies sell for a fraction of the price all around the world.
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Where’s the antitrust suit when you need it, and how long before the the three mentioned companies start merging?
In before the “quality product” argument gets brought up, like the US is the gold standard in medicine and no other country can produce it at an equivalent level. Every other country can produce it but it’s 5-10x the price in the US, it’s straight greed
Won’t somebody think about the pharma shareholders!
I cannot caps this enough.
ABOUT. GODDAMN. TIME.
The fact that sentence exists is pathetic for modern society.
Good!!! Stop the pharmacist companies
Yup, until you need them to keep you alive. Then you’ll shut your mouth, come back here and keep running it.
Thanks for highlighting the problem
Dumb idea, I know nothing about this all. What about alternatively opening up across-the-border purchases, allowing people to legally buy from other countries at a fraction of current US prices. Drug companies can still set their US, uncontrolled prices at whatever they want, & no one has to buy it from them. It’d be like, a Free Market at work. I know this is oversimplified & there’s a lot of complications I’m not aware of, but, just a thought. Also, speaking of unconstitutional, isn’t group collusion to manipulate the market a violation of Sherman Anti-Trust law? Just saying.
How do you make sure the drugs purchased overseas are safe? FDA has pretty tight control over the industry in the US to maintain that here.
For sure a valid question. My presumption is that the same drugs legally produced & sold under that country’s regulations would have a reasonable factor of safety. Good enough for their own people anyway. I think also if I’m faced with the decision, no insulin because I can’t afford it, or drugs only approved to Country X standards, I’m already in a risky situation. For sure some people are already doing this & having to do so illegally.
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Another song and dance, the guy that been the highest recipient of pharma lobbying isnt gonna hurt their profits. The shellgame will just shift money around until election day to make it look like hes doing good for us
