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LINK Drug company CEO calls 400 percent price hike ‘moral requirement’

The opportunity to capitalize on suffering is now a moral obligation and what, Martin Shkreli is some sort of patron saint?

chalupacabre 8 Sep 11
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19 comments

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0

I believe he meant amoral!

2

from Investment Watch, March 16, 2017

Did you know that before 1973 it was illegal in the US to profit off of health care. The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 passed by Nixon changed everything."

I knew this already, but if this is news to you, please read the article. Makes my blood boil!

1

Some of this has to do with a fiduciary duty. They work on behalf of the stockholder and no one else. We need to stop assuming that corporations will do the right thing, they repeatedly prove they do not. They have to be regulated correctly or they can and will exploit people.

2

Profit does not equal moral. Free would meet an actual moral requirement, I'd actually accept at cost in this capitalist society. When do we stop accepting this bullshit as a society and start doing something about it?

2

Especially for a drug that been on the market for a long time. He can’t claim reasearch and all that other BS.

1

This is why we need single payer health insurance that includes drugs. I have Medicare + a small supplemental plan with Excellus and it works!

3

Yes. It's moral to force people who need a drug to survive to give you their life savings for saving their life. They deserve to be forced into financial ruin to survive so you can have another sports car. Bravo, bravo.

8

Market forces are not a great way to deal with health care. Market forces have less morals than a crack dealer. The latter would not sell their grandmother, the former will ask what the going rate for grandmothers is.
The USA spends more per capita on Medicaid for a few than the UK spends on the NHS for universal health care. Obama tried to do something about this but from what I glean it was watered down by big Pharma till it became useless.
Ask yourself this. How much of US GDP is spent on health care? What are you getting for your money? How do mortality rates, days lost though illness etc. compare with other counties systems? Add to this the hidden costs. How many go-getters, entrepreneurs or inventors of a better mouse trap etc. Are stuck in a dead-end job because they can't afford to leave the health insurance provided? How much is that costing your country in the long run?

According to the World Health Organization, the United States spends more than any other country on health care but ranks approximately 37th in the quality of health. The majority of that money is spent on diagnostics. And those diagnostic procedures are not ordered as much out of necessity as they are to protect the physician from law suits. It’s called defensive medicine. Then we add Big Pharma into the picture which drives the cost of health care to the moon. It has been said by better minds than mine that healthcare should be called what it is: diseasecare. Humans are simply the catalysts for companies to make billions of dollars. Health has nothing to do with it.

@michaelinlivonia Its always a tough judgement call. The NHS and NICE (the UK govt watchdog that approves treatment to be covered by the NHS) is always hitting the headlines over not funding this or that treatment that will extend life by a few months/years at vast expense. On the other hand things like heart transplants and hip replacements were considered at their onset to by not worth it.

3

...we just can't get sick
as I purchase my flu shot...
can't miss work time

5

There are no words to adequately express my disgust.

People should be really glad that I'm not an assassin.

but you can be a philosophical assassin and shoot down the health care system in the states!

4

Another moron capitalist trying to justify his immoral life. The irony is rich.

godef Level 7 Sep 11, 2018
3

This make sense within the internal logic of capitalism. That's why the whole system is evil. When something evil makes internal sense, the whole system is evil!

2

We need to learn how to build Guillotines again.

what is wrong with a tree and a rope? Broken neck for me is as good as a severed head.

You Jacobin! Actually , check out the magazine by that name ...

@GipsyOfNewSpain Sometimes the heads lived and tried to scream.

Not too sharp; these idiots need to suffer.

@BufftonBeotch Isn't that a rock band?

@BufftonBeotch Never had the pleasure of kicking a rolling head... but that is so british!!! Not for my taste, americana calls for Electric Chair and let the whole city know when the lights dimmed.

@GipsyOfNewSpain Oh man. The Green Mile was on just last night. What a difficult thing to watch.

@BufftonBeotch Never seen it... somehow prison movies never been my stick... but I saw and enjoyed a lot... "I want to live" based on a true story of the first woman to get the death sentence in California. Awesome movie! Is not she was an angel but it was the men around her that decided to pin the murder on her because no woman will get the gas chamber. There is always a First!

5

I'm sorry, but the first thing that came to my mind is that I bet this guy identifies himself as a Christian.

And a shining example, right? SMH. What happened to: "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

That is a good assumption, but what is it based upon? Nowhere in the articles I have read does Mulye identify himself with any religious cult. I am hoping the FDA does something about this.

He is an Indian. So he might be Hindu by the name. Hinduism also has its way of justifying the rich and powerful.

@Krish55 You're all right. I know nothing about the man. And I guess it could be any religion. It just is such a mean spirited thing to do that I jumped to a prejudiced conclusion!

@SageDave who do you think funds the FDA? You guessed it - the pharmaceutical companies. They pay the FDA to test their own drugs. Whatever happened to the concept of “a conflict of interest”? If you haven’t already, read the book Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher by Gwen Olsen. Pharmaceutical companies are the most corrupt entities in the world.

@ladyprof70 It was a reasonable conclusion to have jumped to.

2

Maybe we do need ethics and morality refresher classes

3

A rational person would not normally pay such prices, but under our system, where insurance is involved, people often don’t even know what the price is. I’m afraid it’s a big free-for-all at the hog trough, and the result is a huge health insurance premium for all.

In a high percentage of cases those bladder and urinary tract cases clear up on their own. Also, Ibuprofen is reported by German doctors to be effective.

[emedicine.medscape.com]

IMO the best solution for our bloated healthcare system is to let it collapse. People should refuse to buy insurance. In some cases travel to other countries for treatment is a viable option. If we simply can’t afford the product offered, some of us might die earlier, but so be it. Better to live in abundance for a moderate length of time than to give half your life savings to the greedy healthcare industry and maybe gain a few drugged-up years.

So what about sick kids?

Your laissez faire attitude condemns many to death!

@Krish55 I know, but something will have to happen at some point. What do you propose?

...I think the system is rationing
medicine now

Mr. Flemming is at least partially correct. Go to any doctor or hospital and offer to pay cash up front for whatever treatment you need, no insurance of any kind, and you will be offered a discount of 40% to 60% off of their listed charges. In short insurance, including government, effectively has doubled our healthcare costs.

3

"I think it is a moral requirement to make money when you can . . . to sell the product for the highest price,"
Simply disgusting.

Dietl Level 7 Sep 11, 2018

That was my thought, exactly. He learn his morals from Enron? Wolf of Wall Street?

Don't think he knows what "moral" means.

In capitalism, morality is to serve your company.

2

That is the result of greed, wealth and privileged position.

and PACs steering legal decisions

4

Of course this action is immoral, but here's the thing:

He can do it only because the government granted him a monopoly.

I understand the need for patents - it costs an average of over a billion dollars to bring a drug from the bench to market today. (Again largely attributable to government, but that's a discussion for another day.) Companies need to recoup those costs, and make a profit, in order to justify the initial investment. But it seems to me there needs to be a limit, either on gross margins or perhaps a shortened period of exclusivity.

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