Supreme Douchebag

[Κracus]

Seriously, this guy needs a punch in the face.

[LawL]

Lucky for him you aren't in the same room.

[Κracus]

That's right.

[plained]

yea he is a dickhead

[Κracus]

In case anyone doesn't know who this shithead is, he's the douchbag that raised the price of a life saving drug 5000% after buying the rights to it. The drugs been in production for something like 60 years and been available under 20$ a pill and he wants to hike the price to 700$ per pill.

I shit you not, his reasoning is that because it's saving your life, it shouldn't be so cheap. What a fucking shithead.

Seriously sys0p, this is exactly the kind of shit I was talking about yesterday. People produce a product at pennies per unit then turn around and charge ludicrous amounts for no good reason other than to do it. Face cream is one thing, but life saving pills... Man that's another whole level of being a complete turd. IMHO, I hope he's held liable for any deaths that are directly linked to people being unable to afford this drug when they could previously.

[syp0s]

Isn't this mostly just leveraging insurance companies? I know it comes across as inhuman, and he does come across as a complete scumbag, but I don't think anyone is paying for these drugs out of their own pocket, hence the 5000% price hike.

[Κracus]

Well I'd imagine anyone without insurance would have been. But yeah, you're right, it's a symptom of a much larger problem which is of course insurance companies.

[Eraser]

Isn't this mostly just leveraging insurance companies? I know it comes across as inhuman, and he does come across as a complete scumbag, but I don't think anyone is paying for these drugs out of their own pocket, hence the 5000% price hike.

Uh, what? Who is paying the insurance companies you think? That's right: you, me and everyone that has an insurance.

[syp0s]

Thanks for that. I hadn't, up until now, realised that I paid insurance companies.

A revelation.

[Eraser]

The way you formulated it made it look like you was arguing this price increase is actually OK ("it comes across as inhuman but it really isn't because people aren't paying for it, insurance companies are")

[Silicone_Milk]

Sure, it's shitty, but that's capitalism for you.
"Drug rights" shouldn't be legally allowed to be privately held by any single entity. Medication rights should immediately fall into public domain to prevent exactly this kind of nonsense from happening.

[mrd]

Maybe he will die of HIV.

[MKJ]

The most punchable face.

[Eraser]

Sure, it's shitty, but that's capitalism for you.
"Drug rights" shouldn't be legally allowed to be privately held by any single entity. Medication rights should immediately fall into public domain to prevent exactly this kind of nonsense from happening.

While I agree, I can also understand that companies aren't keen on putting the rights to their product in the public domain after spending hundreds of millions of dollars into research for it.

[mrd]

Not sure why it matters. Most drugs don't do a fucking thing and just give you crazy bizarre side-effects. You don't think drug companies give a fuck about actually helping people do you?

[Transient]

Only if it helps their bottom line (it does not).

[Eraser]

Not sure why it matters. Most drugs don't do a fucking thing and just give you crazy bizarre side-effects. You don't think drug companies give a fuck about actually helping people do you?

Hmm, that triggers my "baseless conspiracy theory" detector a bit too much.

[Eraser]

I wonder if there are any alternatives to this drug. If so, insurance companies could boycott this drug and run his company into the ground.

[seremtan]

Not sure why it matters. Most drugs don't do a fucking thing and just give you crazy bizarre side-effects. You don't think drug companies give a fuck about actually helping people do you?

Hmm, that triggers my "baseless conspiracy theory" detector a bit too much.

it also triggers my 'total bollocks' detectomatic 9000

if drugs did fuck-all, every pharma company would go out of business

[obsidian]

Sounds like self-justification for not taking *his* pills.

The multi-billion health-supplement industry is mostly a scam (or at least offering minimal benefit), but the pharmaceutical industry most certainly is not.

[mrd]

I don't take any pills... not yet. 'Twas a stupid blanket statement, not to be taken too literally. Some drugs suck, some are OK, some are great. Drug companies have definitely been implicated in fabricating the efficacy of their drugs, or using other immoral means to push their products, which means I am wary by default of most drug offerings. But I don't mind getting into the nitty gritty of the biology behind it. Reading about enzyme pathway action and receptor antagonism gets my juices flowing.

[scared?]

He got arrested on securities fraud... ...
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015- ... ies-fraud/

[Eraser]

This whole Wu Tang Clan ordeal would be hilarious if it was any other person doing it.

[Transient]

He got arrested on securities fraud... ...
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015- ... ies-fraud/

This gives me hope for humanity.

[xer0s]

Really? That's what give you hope?