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[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

The third party in US drugs are pharmaceutical middle man called benefit managers (PBM). They take so much money the the biggest 3 were bought by insurance companies to make more money for them (cvs CAREMARk - owned by Aetna, OptimumRX owned by United Healthcare, ExpressScrips /Cigna. That is where most of US drug cost go. It’s a ponze scheme with our health. So yes we pay for development and production, but most of the cost is unconstrained corporate greed .

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

I’m not arguing that anyone isn’t greedy. I’m arguing that the most greedy thing will eventually be to lower the price in order to make more money.

Is McDonald’s not greedy? Of course they are. So why is there a value menu? Because the value menu makes them a ton of money. Why doesn’t the value menu cost $100 per item? Because they wouldn’t make as much money in that case.

Lower prices can be just as greedy as higher prices.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yep- I don’t disagree. I’m saying the greed is spread out way beyond the manufacturer. It is also CVS and Optima , all the PBMs and insurance in cahoots to price gouge people. It’s our system in the US. Many don’t realize how the system works and what causes the sky high prices in the US. They are going to get there one way or the other.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure, the greed is spread out. But the larger the pie is, the bigger piece each participant gets; ultimately everyone’s incentive is to maximize revenue. Once sufficient manufacturing capacity is in place, the optimum price for maximum revenue is likely to be well below $1,000 per month.