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Edward Kennedy

@krenaud @rbreich That’s what I am thinking. The American people shouldn’t be gouged especially since we helped fund the rollout of the vaccine. I am more curious about the cost of the underlying technology, mRNA platform, that was researched for at least a decade before implementing a COVID vaccine.

10 comments
Krister Renaud

@rbreich @ekennedy80 reading this it sounds like the companies should have been able to recover those costs too considering others have provided some of the research.

statnews.com/2020/11/10/the-st

clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️

@ekennedy80 @krenaud @rbreich That doesn't make sense. You don't want to distort equilibrium prices as that creates dead weight loss. You just want to give people money.

clay anderson 🇺🇦🇮🇱🔰🥑🌐🚲🗽☢️

@ekennedy80 @krenaud @rbreich if people have a hard time affording the necessities of life, give them MONEY. don't make things artificially cheap, as that creates deadweight loss. this is all well established econ.
medium.com/effective-economics

if there's a *market failure*, e.g. a monopoly, then by all means fix that by breaking it up. but don't *create* a market failure by distorting the equilibrium price of goods or services.

Krister Renaud

@ekennedy80 @rbreich @cshentrup big pharma makes lots of profits in other countries with much lower prices. Why should oligopolies be unregulated when they obviously abuse their position?
A 10ml vial of insulin (lispro/Humalog) is $16 here in Sweden, 5 KwikPens cost $22 to customer. (These prices are before state subsidies)

The US prices are $82/vial and $159 for 5 KwikPens.

Krister Renaud

@ekennedy80 @rbreich @cshentrup the antiemetic medication I take before cancer treatment is $48/pill. In the US it costs over $700 per pill.

Bigsmiffy

@cshentrup @ekennedy80 @krenaud @rbreich

That’s just bonkers.
Moderna doesn’t charge other countries that much, because single layer and regulatory forces make drugs cheaper.

No we don’t have to break up Moderna, that would mean fewer drugs we can however regulate the ,market effectively
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@dlenares

@ekennedy80 @krenaud @rbreich
My understanding is that they were not investing in research on the underlying technology because infectious diseases were not profitable before COVID and Operation Warp Speed. The US government paid for the research.

@dlenares

@ekennedy80 @krenaud @rbreich
I don't have a source for this but a friend is in research admin at Moderna and she mentioned it years ago.

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