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The Biotech Pricing Scandal Explained By Taiwanese Animators
Martin Shkreli's (who started his Wall Street career working for Jim Cramer, and apparently still owes the Lehman estate $2.3 million for a Put trade gone wrong) decision to disturb the fragile equilibrium in the biotech industry by hiking the price of Daraprim, a drug which had been on the market for decades, from $13.50 to $750, has caused massive ripple effects, and forced none other than Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton to chime in that drug prices will be the next area of government intervention with a likely monthly cap set to be implemented if she becomes president, also leading to the biggest plunge in the biotech stock index in 2015.
To be sure drug treatment costs, already astronomical by many standards, would quietly keep rising months after month, without much public attention as the price hikes were gradual and did not attract much public attention as they were blanketed by various insurance schemes and "distributed" costs... until over the weekend the NYT decided to profile the decision of Turing Pharmaceuticals to boost the price of Daraprim - a drug used to treat toxoplasmosis - by over 5500%.
To be sure, the headline shock and the resultant populist rhetoric that was unleashed by Hillary Clinton among others, has been offset by market purists claiming there is nothing wrong with the price surge itself, if there is enough demand to meet the exorbitant price (an argument used to justify Uber "surge" pricing among others). And yet, a key question is how much of the price surge is "internalized" by everone else through such socialized welfare cost absorption mechanisms as Obamacare and Medicare.
With soaring healthcare costs, and with Americans on edge about healthcare inflation, expect this topic to be at the forefront of the 2016 presidential election cycle.
For now, however, if anyone is still confused by the trigger that caused the biggest selloff in biotech stocks in 2015, here are the infamous Taiwanese animators with "all you need to know."
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Pirates..............biotech
And great video
This guy is the poster-child of a NARCISSIST…or "Anti-Social Personality Disorder" per the DSM5. It's true, Sociopaths really do run the world.
I don't understand how people like this expect to survive. Does everyone forget that there are people who literally just go nuts from losing loved ones to price-gouging health care? He must literally walk around while surrounded by bodyguards if he has any brains at all. He should be expecting that his price gouging will create some kind of nutter who wants to shoot him in the head on the street.
Ths is what happens when a PE group buys anything and just wait till they fuck up the oil patch.....
They missed the part where the Clinton Foundation shorted Biotech the day before her Tweet threatening caps on drugs.
Yes or, at the very least, the (J)New York Times tossed the article out for Hildabeast's campaign's use.
For 30 years, or basically my entire life, they have done 'fundraisers' to 'find a cure' for Cancer. And still haven't found it! its almost like the business model works so well, why blow it all up, by actually finding a cure?
What they are actually looking for are... TREATMENTS. Something that you will have to be on for the rest of your life, paying rent to Big Pharma for every day you want to live.
And there are plenty of those...
Hopefully a group of socially responsible hackers will rape this greedy asshole.
its almost like the business model works so well, why blow it all up, by actually finding a cure?
The cancer industry makes about $250K/patient on average for "treatment". They really couldn't care less how much you suffer or if you die - you're just a walking ATM to them. There's a reason they call chemo "liquid death" and that 80% of oncologists would never take nor prescribe chemo to their family members who had cancer - but it'll be the first thing they push on you.
Any time you create an organization to "fight" some particular thing - be it a disease, drug abuse, or even government corruption (as the FBI was originally supposed to do) - that organization has NO INTEREST in seeing the "problem" they "fight" go away. Same goes for war - when the most powerful corporations (and banks) on the planet make trillions off war, does anyone think for one second that they're going to let peace break out in the world?
Exactly! Around here, it has become absolutely absurd. For the month of Sept., Channel 3 news in Charlotte has been running a nightly segment called 30 kids, 30 days about pediatric cancer. There just happens to be a local children's hospital for whom they're drumming up business. Then, next month will be breast cancer awareness month. Hooray! Nearly all of this b*llsh!t is marketed to women, of course. Last year, I spotted a pink PT Cruiser w/ a ribbon on the door, nothing else. At the same time, one of the local fast food joints served pink straws. There's money in them thar boobs! And I don't mean just breasts.
This sort of price-gouging will continue to happen or probably accelerate until that will happen.
Martin Shkreli has nothing to do with biotech. His company dose not develop any life-saving drugs.
Instead, Martin Shkreli is a poster child for Zionist Banking/WallStreet Mafia. They use any opportunity to use FED free-provided money and the corrupt American political system to loot American taxpayers.
Martin Shkreli is just fraudulently using a biotech logo to masquerade his true nature and real intentions. The same goes for Hiltery Clinton and Donald slum-lord Trump.
Aren't most biotechs just a game by hedge fund managers?
The New York Times is claiming today that deductibles have been rising by a hundred dollars "or so" per year.
Bwahahahahahaha, that's what, about $10 per month? Who are they trying to fool?
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/business/health-insurance-deductibl...
The way to win, is not to play, i.e. don't get sick. When people ask me what they should invest in, I suggest themselves. Lose weight, eat right, learn a foreign language. Stuff one does not need to go to college to do. Then I get some kind of WTF-are-you-talking-about stare. "Ha ha ha, just kidding! Buy Apple."
That actually made me laugh as much as the Hulk tearing the guy in half with the blood spatter.
This episode represents a second problem with Pharma, the whole patent troll thging. The first is of course the fact that the incentive of drug companies is not to cure anything but to create palliatives that keep it just bearable but create a revenue stream for eternity. Incentives matter.
- yes, the patent troll thing is big - if we want real change, the determination of Dr. Szasz is that we must repeal the CSA - Controlled Substances Act. Thereby returning a "market" to medicines & inebriants, foods & drinks. Let states & localities determine their standards and limits. Instead of current regulatory capture of all important aspects of american corporate life, we could arrive at a much more realistic and fair playing field. And in the process letting the MIC transform itself as well. The benefits are global and enormous. If you want to change the face of that sociopath/psychopath rising as a result of the current system, repeal the CSA.
Son, they repealed the CSA in 1865.
and in this case, don't eat cat poop
Martin Shkreli has that face that looks like it is begging to accept a fist to it. I seriously cannot wait to see this guy in cuffs, and he will be with his attitude and actions that are stirring up the plebs. His trial will be fucking hilarious. Anyone want to start a "Beat the crap out of Shkreli" fund? I'll donate.
I watched this motherfucker on CNBC. I honest to God had a surge of rage so hard I nearly got nauseuos.
I have rarely seen such a NAKED SOCIOPATH.
It's douchebags like this cocksucker who rallies the other sociopaths on the left to fight for single payer. And we're going to get it. Mark my words. Simply because Republicans and Conservatives and ESPECIALLY LIBERTARIANS won't police their own.
This fuckwad is Ayn Rand reincarnated in a little douchbag boy's body.
Here is the clip I found so nauseating on CNBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0P4r9fcy1o
Just set aside repair money for your computer. You're going to need it after you take out your screen
Seriously, I'm calling on ALL HACKER GROUPS WORLDWIDE to destroy this guy and his company.
WIKI LEAKS.....ANONYMOUS......ANYBODY.....HERE IS YOUR NEXT TARGET
CNBC has just released a bombshell on MArtin Shkreli, the sociopath CEO of the company that jacked that drug up 5000% overnight.
He truly is CRAZY ! In fact, he got run out of his old company for harassing an entire family of a guy he accused of fraud.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/22/controversial-drug-ceo-was-accused-of-ser...
"Your husband had stolen $1.6 million from me and I will get it back. I will go to any length necessary to get it back," Shkreli allegedly wrote the wife of former Retrophin employee Timothy Pierotti in a January 2013 letter, according to court documents.
"Your pathetic excuse of a husband needs to get a real job that does not depend on fraud to succeed ... I hope to see you and your four children homeless and will do whatever I can to assure this," Shkreli allegedly wrote.
But HERE IS THE REAL REASON THIS COCKSUCKER IS RAISING THE PRICE OF THE DRUG 5000 %
Police in New Jersey were contacted about the alleged harassment as it escalated around Christmas, Retrophin settled a lawsuit against the ex-worker out of court, confidentially, in early 2014 after the employee's lawyer asked a New York judge to order Shkreli's computers to be analyzed on the heels of the allegations.
Retrophin's board later move to replace Shkreli as CEO, and he resigned his positions. Retrophin is now suing him for $65 million in a case where he is accused of acting against the interests of the company.
That's right. This little sniveling cocksucker is being sued for 65 million dollars for his little sociopathic hissy fit.
Daddy needs a legal fund. I think I'll just jack this drug up a few THOUSAND PERCENT !!!
But here's the kicker. HE'S A COMPLETE FRAUD !! IN HIS FORMER COMPANIE'S OWN WORDS
Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager, had been fired from Retrophin, which he founded, last year. In August, the company sued him in Manhattan federal court, for "repeatedly breaching his duty of loyalty to Retrophin," by allegedly using his control of Retrophin to "enrich himself and to pay off claims of [his prior hedge fund's] investors (who he had defrauded)," Retrophin claimed in its suit.
"Shkreli was the paradigm faithless servant," Retrophin charged in its suit, which is seeking $65 million in damages from its founder.
Just another ponzi...
I thought 'Biotech" was supposed to be based upon drug therapies of a biological nature?
Or does 'biotech" simply mean any pharma where wall street money flows?
Cause calling a 60 year old small molecule drug "biotech" is like calling the Wookie a woman.
A bit of a stretch.
pods
Jargon, its what's for dinner.
Wookie's don't have gender? I had more fun in the 70's than I thought.
Neither do dwarves.
bonus time
Make generic drugs. For the penalty paid on infringing on patents, it would be worthwile to consumer and manufacturer. By the time it is finished going through the courts it will have helped thousands. If they can steal, so can others.
The dark web will serve the people.
Why I had to buy My Wife's Inhaler on the Dark Webhttp://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-i-had-to-buy-my-wifes-inhaler-on-th...
Most excellent article. Thanks.
What can be done with drugs can be done with vitamins (assuming the right doseage).
http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v09n29.shtml
http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v02n03.shtml
http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v03n09.shtml
The key is to take more than you need (water soluble except A and D). Vitamin C is the silver bullet - cures (not treats) all with the right doseage.
FUCK BIOTECH/PHARMA
And this here, ladies and gentlemen, is a perfect example of paratardation - a dangerous combination of paranoia and severe mental retardation.
If you would take the pharma cock out of your mouth before commenting, you might say something useful.
The simple way to not die from AIDS is to not seek treatment for AIDS, not overdosing on anything be it a vitamin or a failed chemo drug.
Health does not come in a bottle, whether "big pharma" controlled or not.
Whole foods will provide you with health.
A bad diet will overcome anything else that you do that is positive.
pods
The simple way of not dying from AIDS is to not undertake risky behaviors which are likely avenus of infection. (Injected Illegal Drug Use, Anal Intercourse, etc.)
However if you decide to play and undertake those risky behaviors then just do not make me pay for your playing.
What I am saying is that HIV is not infective.
In fact, HIV is simply not.
http://www.houseofnumbers.com/site2/
pods
Good comments on diet, Pods. The vitamin C from one apple is about 40X more potent eaten in the form of an apple vs the equivalent vitamin C in pill form (from memory-- source: "Whole" by T Colin Campbel, author of The China Study). Studies repeatedly show that vitamins are best taken in the natural state: in whole foods. Looking forward to reading this one: http://nutritionfacts.org/2015/09/15/my-new-book-how-not-to-die-is-now-a...
HIV/AIDS truthfulness aside, the series of videos debunking House of Numbers on YouTube expose its highly manipulative editing. (They're also full of character assassinations and not much better than the documentary they're critiquing.)
Big thumbs up orangegeek, an elegant reply.
Nice fuck off reply. You pharma/biotech pigs are in the receptor business taking existing molecules like vitamins and attached a receptor, calling it a molecule and patenting it.
The receptor merely controls the rate of absorption. Nice fucking technology asshole. This is why pharma has been consolidating for the last 20 years (no new product pipeline).
Big pharma can't patent what already exists in nature such a vitamins. So now big pharma goes back to the crap they mothballed and create crap we don't need like viagra (and other like brands that were created as an anti depressent.
Viagara equivalent is L-Arginine (an enzyme) that causes nitrogen production and makes your dick stand up. B3 (niacin) dialates and increase blood flow. Total cost? About 50 cents per dose.
As I sad before fuck-wad, take the pharma cock out of your mouth (that means stop sucking) and say something useful.
And to whom is your reply for?
I think that he confused Aussiekiwi with BoingBoing and was just too pissed off to see that Aussiekiwi was in agreement with him...as I am.
Vitamins will alleviate many problems and a proper diet will promote a healthy immune system.
My parents are in their 80's and they take vitamins and herbal supplements. They are healthy.
They refuse to get sucked into the health care scam.
Love the language these Taiwanse use.
'greedy and douchey'!
In a free market this would not happen. However we have so many barriers to entry in this field that businesses can exact any level of profits that they desire without fear of competition arising to pursue a piece of that profit pie.
Eliminate even half of the barriers to entry in these markets and see the cost of drugs plummet.
This is the role of government these days. Someone develops a decent business. It is bought out. They then bribe government officials and hire tonnes of lawyers (and banking consultants, why not). The government passes laws to 'protect consumers' which are in fact just massive barriers to entry for any competition to said newly acquired business. Rinse and repeat.
Explain to me how come there's so many people with burnouts and depressions and once they start to take pills that they become wrecks.
In the good old days they cured that with : SUCK IT UP AND STRAIGHTEN YOUR BACK wisdom.
And people didn't become plants for years to come and didn't need expensive pills called medicine.
I think the Government might be moving from a Drugs are bad policy to a drugs are cool policy, with mark ups like this that 18 trillion in debt will be paid of in no time.
Well, if you could move the profits from the illegal drug cartels into the US Treasury at least they'd have a few hundred billion more for their interventionist wars.
In the old days they just became drunks when suck it up just wouldn't cut it.
Like my grandfather who killed himself.....only after killing my grandmother.
I agree you can't always find a cure in a pill. In fact, THERE IS NO CURE in a pill. But it can at least take the edge off.
But what are the root causes of depression and burnout in the first place ?
I suggest it's this pointless, work until you die and/or are replaced with a robot or an illegal, technoutopian, leveraged to the hilt sociopathic world we have made for ourselves.
Endless Wars, Endless Rat Mazes where douchbag managers and CEO's constantly move your Cheese for no good reason and the Motherfucking Eternal Hamster Wheel chasing an always out of reach treat.
Sort of hard to have a lot of sympathy for big Pharma when they whine about cheap generic drugs from overseas corroding their profit margins, People who price gouge drugs that people need to live are the lowest form of life on the planet, yes even lower than Politicians, Bankers and lawyers.
That was great!
The problem is government, specifcally the FDA, which makes it possible for a company to attain a monopoly on a generic drug. In a free market system this would not happen.
Also, this guy being Albanian is part of the problem.... he is a stereotype villain with his ugly grin. I wonder if it is a set up by Clinton to create a campaign plank?
should open a hunting season for most vile human money men...there would be a bag limit of course...I am think 100 per weekend.
For some reason he reminds me of the James Spader character in "Less Than Zero".
drug costs are up across the board 20% per year the lasts number of years. Obamacare mandatory slushfund and unlimited kickbacks for doctors are crushing everyone. I pay outragous insurance so drug ussers and people that gets AIDS and smokers. Lets go back to pay out of pocket and see what happens. Medical care costs are absurd and abusive.
where is this 2% inflation they speak of?
in 2010, annual sales for this drug was like $667k and like 6,000 out of hospital prescriptions, so not a lot of interest because not too much money in it, so this guy comes along after a couple others and buys the marketing rights, controls the supply with single source distributing so that supposedly no generics can get their hands on the drug (per NYT, this point sounds absurd to me and someone isn't trying hard enough), this guy is a fucking douche, he has to charge so much because he paid so much and is trying to create a monopoly around the drug, someone needs to make this drug just to put the guy out of business
Wow crappy animation, they didn't explain the criminality of pricing protection.
I keep wondering when the 100th monkey will figure out that the medical model is designed to kill you. You can make it all free if you like, but it's still a system designed to kill you.
I watch people around here eat the corporate food until they are bloated and broken. Then they waddle over to the corporate medical system, empty their pockets and are transformed into the walking dead.
You really have to have some screws loose to think that's a good road to follow.
it should be mandatory for doctors to give you 3 prices...the most, the least and middle. Instead they perform things and you get the bill 5 months later. I tore my Achilles and found out I was on the hook for $15k of $50k bill...because doctor was out of network. Even got a bill from anesthesiologist...who had already been paid by insurance...he was looking to double dip. Happened with my wife with another operation. System is corrupt and greedy
He should really brush his fucking teeth, prick. Everything is measured by the size of your wallet, what a completely distorted country! I used to be proud of being an American now I am just embarressed. Hillary is a lying cunt, cannot believe anything she says - ever! This is sooo upsetting, just another hedge fund prick like Jim "Fuckhead, Asswipe" Kramer. They won't be happy until they steal everything we have, including and most importantly our pensions. I recently bought a second safe just so I can completely avoid using a bank for everything but paying bills - $100 balance is what I maintain and even that is more than I want to keep in the account because at some point they will even steal that.
A global revolution is coming and once it starts it won't stop until they are all eliminated - roll out the guilotines, sharpen the blades - heads will roll, literally.
According to Wiki,
In 2000, Shkreli began working for Jim Cramer at Cramer, Berkowitz, & Co.
Figures.
Birds of a feather...
I wonder how many ex-Navy seals this guy can afford to rent.
I wonder how many would stiff him for fun?
Check out how the doctors and big pharma murdered a cancer patient in New Zealand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l772sEfYnRg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7O_Wrvbqn0
The murdering doctors took the patient off 100 grams VITAMIN C PER DAY intra and he eventually died after making a recovery - THE DOCTORS STOPPED THE VITAMIN C AFTER PATIENT RECOVERED. FUCKING MURDERERS!!!!
FUCK BIG PHARMA!!!! FUCK THE PHARMA COCK SUCKING MURDERING DOCTORS!!!!
Drug cartels should take note and switch to manufacturing prescription medications.
Not only there's more money in it they'll be hailed as heroes and supported by ordinary people.
that is frickin hilarious! (wish I could understand what they are saying though)
Only possible in a fasicist nation where Big Pharma can a manadatory insurance scam without caps can rob consumers.
the bottom line is biotech is the only place anyone is making money with a positive slope in obambamcare nation. btfd!.
Capitalism needs rules just like football.
Welcome laissiz faire capitalism. No tax on big business, no funding for state universties. Result? Price gouging and runaway inflation in cost of essentials like education/medicine/shelter. Soon they'll hike the price of bread to $10/loaf
With all these high priced M and A....you can bet prices are going up....you have to pay for your overpriced company...that you just bought
In the good old days this problem was solved with a string.
1 am surprised there aren't more defenders of the free market posting here.
this is precisely why a for profit model does not work in healthcare. as a capitalist, if i see a necessary drug that sells for cheap then i will turn that demand into price and charge the limit of the market which, in the case of hiv drugs, is the sky.
the only way to stop that sort of "gouging" is to regulate the price with a centralized system changing the market focus to prevention rather than the much more profitable maintenance of illness model.
in the end, you have a can of worms. choose your maggot.
They think sick people can't fight but yes they can.
This price hike is not capitalism. Maybe crony capitalism, but not true free-market capitalism because there is no free market in healthcare, especially pharmaceuticals. Most pharmaceutical companies could not survive on their own, or if they could, they would not look anything like they do now. Insurance companies and governments are used to fund research and development. Period. The system imposed on them forces them to do this.But don't think governments are losers to the pharma industry. Far from it. Just like Wall Street, there is a revolving door in the industry. I work in pharmaceutics and in my oponion, its all mostly a sham. Most drugs do not cure. You might get relief of symptoms, perhaps extend life a bit, but no cure in most instances. And these companies make shitloads of money and they are not modest about it. If a company truly put patients first, they would do all they could to keep the costs of their products low and still turn a decent profit. Massive overhead is a problem, as well as government regulations. If you only knew how much money complying with regulations costs you would shit your britches. And if you think the FDA is bad, you should try doing business in Europe and even some asain countries. The USA is probably the least stinky turd in the regulatory toilet bowl. There needs to be a common sense level of regulation to prevent snake-oil salesmen, but these regulatory agencies have turned into massive jobs programs for governments.
greed is rife in every market, take life insurance for example
I can fix this problem with one law. Make it illegal for any company to sell a prescription drug in the US for one penny more than it sells it anywhere else in the world.