@rbreich Please show a reference, Robert Reich.

@rbreich Big pharma are allowed to advertise prescription medication on TV and other media in the USA. This is not allowed in many other countries because it increases the cost of goods produced. It must pay off for the drug companies otherwise they would not do it. It costs the consumer dearly in inflated drug costs, however.

@rbreich medical companies are some of the most greedy, least compassionate bastards there are.

@rbreich
No, this is what government #failure looks like.

#Moderna succeeded with US taxpayer dollars through #NIH.

Government health #policies don't exist to protect citizens from such companies.

Companies will continue to make maximum profit for #shareholders using current rules. It isn't a #charity.

@rbreich GREED is destroying America. 🇺🇸💔🥀

@rbreich @jrdepriest until we return to eating the rich, this will never change.

@rbreich this entire thing reminds me of "you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain"

@rbreich This is so incredibly gross, but not surprising when you consider that we have a similar cost vs price scale for life-saving insulin. America is exceptionally corrupt.

@rbreich fucking Rishi Sunak that cunt.

@rbreich This is an affront to Dolly Parton, who helped pay for the damn thing!

@rbreich Remind me who paid for their research in the first place?

@rbreich let’s also not forget that the vaccine was developed with the assistance of billions of dollars of government cash, where’s the ROI for the taxpayer?

@rbreich Can we reach out to Dolly Parton for commentary on this?

@rbreich
Covid changes faster than vaccine. What is the point

@rbreich
It's actually tyranny

@rbreich I wish I could care as much as I should, but it is on my list. Grandma needs to run for Congress.

@rbreich Is that the basic material cost‽ Does it factor in paying for licenses, research & development, payroll, marketing, etcetera‽

@rbreich

@rbreich What percentage of that price goes towards profit, and what percentage goes towards recouping for the CapEx costs, particularly the *billions* of dollars spend on unnecessary, overly complicated, bureaucratic, regulatory approval processes? What percentage of the price goes towards recouping the development costs of other drugs that didn’t end up working as intended, and so were never sold? The OpEx costs and the price says nothing about the real underlying cost structure

@rbreich Capitalism at its best!!!!

@rbreich

Maybe we should offer them a tax break?

@rbreich pharma companies should have their profits capped and all excess should be diverted into health care.

@rbreich

OMFG!

Where did you find this? This is the first I’ve heard of this.

🌈💖🏳️‍⚧️⚧

@rbreich
Mechanic:
That'll be $500 please

Customer:
But all you did to fix it was hit the engine with a hammer, took you no more than 1 minute!

Mechanic:
Exactly, I charge $120/hour + the service fee

Customer:
So I only owe you $2 then!

Mechanic:
Yes, for the labor; and a $498 service fee for knowing where & how to hit with the hammer.

@rbreich No, that’s what corrupt, incompetent, misguided governments look like.

@rbreich so what can we do? I voted dem and I need the vaccine? What do we do, Mr Reich?

@rbreich Absolutely

@rbreich And it was developed with taxpayer $$$

@rbreich I’m sorry but weren’t you the secretary of labor for a president who didn’t pass public health care?

@rbreich better grab one while they're still free...? 😓

@rbreich Corporrate greed and government inaction.

@rbreich This is a particularly egregious case because the regular pharma arguments about compensation for risk don't apply. First, covid was an unexpected event, so revenues from selling covid vaccines aren't necessary to cover the company's pre-covid mrna vaccine research. That research would have been undertaken in expectation of other returns. Second, the government directly funded Moderna's development of its covid vaccine (to the tune of $1 billion), so Moderna didn't face any risk.

@rbreich wish I could invent a vaccine. $19 billion would come in handy right now.

@rbreich when will peopl learn that corporate greed is a fact? government regulation is a must.

we can't just let corporations regulate themselves, all they want is growth and profit. say what you will about them but the only ones remotely interested in the well being of citizens are elected officials.

@rbreich Pharma bro!
It's all about the cash. People do not matter, just the ( money and how much the company can suck out of you) !

@rbreich Pretty sure it was one of the big pharma companies that cooked this virus in a lab in order to profit from it.

@rbreich I'm lucky enough to live in Japan. I've been vaccinated five times and haven't paid a single yen. This is what socialized medicine looks like.

@rbreich didn't someone else develop the vaccine? Development costs $0. Obscene pricing. Push through negotiating prices or buy Canadian.

@rbreich presumably you're a guy in the room with power. What are ypu doing about it, I mean beyond tooting.

@rbreich What makes it more disgusting is that Moderna received $2.5 billion from the US government (plus $1 million from Dolly Parton) to develop its vaccine. We already paid for it, thanks.

@rbreich there is also the R&D to pay for, but given most of this was paid for by governments internationally this seems like profiteering. Packing, shipping etc can’t possibly cost that.

@rbreich did anyone expect anything different.....profits.....stock holders want big returns....low percentage of Americans own stock...so it is gouging

@rbreich

To be fair, that is solved with single payer universal health care. They won’t be selling at that price to the Australian government, because the single layer will just say “ahhhh, no, we won’t pay that”.

@rbreich don't get me started on how computer game companies are ripping us off by demanding $50 for things that cost $0 to copy

@rbreich This is why we need a publicly-owned drug manufacturing company with a blanket exemption from paying any royalties on any so-called "intellectual property"

@rbreich A government that was actually interested in the wellbeing of its constituents wouldn't allow this to happen. This is depraved.

@rbreich (cc-ing alter egos @kirt@mastodon.social @kirt@zeroes.ca)

#Moderna and #Pfizer are both raising prices of their #COVID vaccine by $100 per dose.

Do #SouthAfrica get to keep making their reverse engendered local version without a three figure licensing fee per dose? #GlobalHealth #AfricanScience

and does #Australia having local manufacturing mean we get some control of pricing or some share of profits? #auspol

@rbreich

Now look at the large insurers and PBMs and big pharma. $100 bucks says they get “rebates” that they do not pass onto the consumers, hence the CEOs keep driving up each others profits while further defrauding the people

@rbreich I wonder how much the vaccine research costs?

@rbreich also government welfare for the rich

@rbreich

Yep.

@rbreich I don’t mind paying that amount at all but less well off should have this financed by the state.

Or even better every dose should be provided by the state and prices aggressively negotiated down.

I believe companies are entitled to make hefty profits as an incentive to create new vaccines.

@rbreich I hope Dolly Parton at least gets a cut.

@rbreich That’s scandalous, Robert! Where are you getting these figures from?

@rbreich

How much did tax payers contribute to the development of it?

@rbreich
It's what America is.
@jeffjarvis

@rbreich

"The Capitalists"...

@rbreich I suspect it cost them a wee bit more than $2.85 to develop one of the first two life-saving mRNA vaccines in history but you do you.

@rbreich Surely USA government can do something

@rbreich
@kirt@mastodon.social

@rbreich It shows that the pharma industry is not operating in a free competitive market and that it is not regulated to put the public interest first.

@rbreich
The insiders at Moderna are definitely getting their cut of the spoils

@rbreich libraries are most of the time, public funded and free to the public. Why then is public funded stuff like drugs and shit *not* free to the public???

Corporate controlled government. There is no other answer.

@rbreich

Please stop calling it corporate greed as if corporations are independent of the people who run them.

This is billionaire CEO Stéphane Bancel's decision. This is him and people like him behaving like psychopaths and holding people to ransom.

@rbreich
Buy stocks, and complain.

@rbreich not sure if there is vaccine for greed

@rbreich A ground breaking, game changing way to produce vaccines. Took years of research to develope. The possibilities are miraculous, including cancer. What do you they should charge? $3.00?

@rbreich Whatever, they can battle it out with my insurance company.

@rbreich I don't care. I just paid $2800 for one of my several heart medications. Reform health care or shove off.

@rbreich sure but $2.85 to make doesn’t sound like you’ve accounted for all costs. If make means “manufacture a dose” that isn’t the real and full cost.

As much as I get the $19 billion profit argument you’ve also got to account for more than just the “manufacturing cost”.

So the real cost will be higher. Just not $130, but somewhere more than $2.85.

@rbreich If more Americans were aware of this level of corporate greed, would they care? Or do they hope to be rich and greedy one day, themselves?

@rbreich @jeffjarvis didn’t we pay for it’s development?

@rbreich This is what corporate greed being highly destructive to humanity looks like.

Did anyone think that pharmaceuticals are driven purely by humanitarian concerns?

@rbreich While the pandemic is still going on, no less. Absolutely reprehensible.

@rbreich yep