Pfizer says it will price Covid treatment Paxlovid at nearly $1,400 for a five-day course, which researchers estimate only costs Pfizer $13 to produce. That's a 10,000%+ markup. Shameful.

i_have_no_enemies@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 2120 points –
Dr. Lucky Tran :verified: (@luckytran@med-mastodon.com)
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Explain why we make it legal for companies to set their own prices again

It does make companies more willing to invest more into drug research , which is a good thing.

Drug research is overwhelmingly publicly funded. Private R&D is a PR myth we were fed to justify high prices.

I never said wasn’t. What I said is still true.

No. Those two statements don't go together like that. They aren't making big new drugs. At most they are looking for ways to adjust the formula so they can extend patents. There is no amount of profit that makes them willing to do more R&D.

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Covid treatment was publicly funded. This is a case of public funding going to research and private companies profiting from it.

Everyone should be outraged from the situation. This cheap treatment is being denied to the majority of the world's population because of patients, and so covid has more opportunities to mutate and make everyone less safe.

Why don't we just take investor money and invest in it ourselves?

Others have already pointed out that the covid vaccine was publicly funded ergo the benefit should be publicly owned

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