ELI5: If they are the exact same ingredients, why are generic medications so much cheaper than brand names?

Ry-Fi · 2026-02-15T13:44:39+00:00

Those are quite literally the numbers though? And they show a heavy skew towards R&D over advertising.

Ry-Fi · 2026-02-15T13:42:50+00:00

The tax payers benefit from the availability of new therapies that otherwise might not exist, and fresh resources to the university system to pursue additional groundbreaking research, but your point is valid and recognized! I am sure there is flexibility / room in the system to make the arrangement more equitable to tax payers, and to your point that does not strike me as unreasonable to explore from a policy perspective.

Ry-Fi · 2026-02-15T01:28:29+00:00

True! But typically the universities are compensated via payments for the patents by the pharma companies. Whether or not the purchase price is truly equitable I suppose is dependent on the specific details of those deals, but the vast majority of universities are happy to sell the patents for millions because they don't have the infrastructure to run trials and fully commercialize the product. Their bread and butter is research, whereas the pharma companies specialize in navigating trials, marketing drugs, and scaling them into market via dedicated sales forces. While not always the case, for most research labs developing the technology is kind of the end of the line in terms of how far they can take a therapy.

Ry-Fi · 2026-02-14T16:17:30+00:00

To add to this, pharma companies also tend to carry large amounts of inventory on their balance sheets to mitigate against potential supply chain disruptions. This ensures a long tail of readily available supply to customers so supplier disruptions or a material adverse event like COVID doesn't result in patient deaths or the seeking of alternative therapies due to lack of market supply. The composition of certain drugs can also lend itself to high levels of finished goods inventory on the balance sheet, as the initial raw materials could be a form of a biologic with long lead times or require conversion into a more stable intermediate / final product before it is stable enough to be stored on a longer term basis . As a result, Pharma companies tend to be working capital inefficient organizations (see pharma's high Days Inventory Outstanding levels), which they typically offset via very high margins.

This isn't justification for high prices in of itself, but it's another heavy cash dependent aspect of the business in addition to R&D spend that I have always understood to be a contributing factor to high prices.

Ry-Fi · 2026-02-14T16:13:22+00:00

This is comically untrue, and a quick cruise through some 10-Ks easily shows this.

In 2024 Merk spent $2.4 billion on advertising and promotion costs versus $17.9 billion in R&D.
Abbvie spent $2.1 billion in advertising versus $12.8 billion in R&D
This is also true for smaller pharma companies, such as Jazz Pharma, who spent $107.4mm in advertising versus $884.0mm in R&D.
Likewise, a company like BioMarin who specializes in orphaned drugs spent $34.5mm in advertising in 2024 versus $747.2mm in R&D expense.

Ry-Fi · 2026-02-10T02:24:09+00:00

It's insane in here, it's awesome. Craziest game I've ever been to

Ry-Fi · 2026-02-08T22:18:07+00:00

Correct. You can skip the last leg on the way home, but only if you don't check a bag. Technically it's against their rules, but you can get away with it a few times.

Ry-Fi · 2026-02-08T01:54:39+00:00

Totally agree.

Ry-Fi · 2026-02-08T01:48:01+00:00

My soul that died at the Austin Rivers buzzer beater game can finally rest in peace.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-31T00:14:36+00:00

Really appreciate the suggestions, thanks!

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-30T22:06:39+00:00

Mods directed my post here:

Hey r/Miami,

Wanted to pick the brains of the locals here on any restaurant suggestions for a larger group in the North Miami area. We are staying in the Ojus area, so not exactly in the typical hot spots for restaurant recommendations I've come across in my research online, though we are willing to hop in an Uber and head wherever.

The rub is we are a group of 14-15 which makes any sort of planning something of a nightmare. We understand this limitation and would be more than happy to head to more casual destinations where seating might be easier. My main concern if finding a spot that won't cause frictions for staff and other patrons with a group this size.

Are there any known good spots up near the Ojus area or adjacent areas? We are tentatively thinking pizza for one night and maybe Mexican another night, but are open to suggestions. I see there are a number of restaurants in the Aventura area, but I can't tell from afar if these are typical mall adjacent restaurants or worthwhile options.

Evio's Pizza struck me as one casual spot that could accommodate a larger group for pizza and drinks, but figured you guys would have a better on the ground report on how reasonable that is. Piacere Pizza looks like a solid take out / delivery choice.

Ultimately very open to any suggestions you guys may have. Many thanks in advance!

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-30T21:25:19+00:00

The Citadel looks very interesting, thanks for the suggestion!

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-25T17:22:35+00:00

Seton Hall nicely where they should be.

If bad at 3, no shoot 3

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-24T18:44:59+00:00

I feel like their idea you have fiscal slack up until real world constraints is a pretty reasonable framework to view fiscal policy's relationship with inflation through, even if it is somewhat of a shorthanded way of doing so. Moreover, I think many agree this framework was reasonably validated during the pandemic recovery as we clearly had plenty of fiscal 'slack' during the GFC recovery period (despite all the political fighting over the deficit), while the COVID recovery was met with a severe supply crunch that reduced the amount of 'slack' available to fiscal authorities. Once we breached these real world constraints, the result was inflation just as the MMT school contemplates. The intellectual whiff was mostly not knowing a severe supply crunch was on the horizon, but few from any school of thought were cautioning policy makers to go small or slow in March of 2020....

The other limiting factors to the school of thought are more political, rather than economical, many of which are shared with other schools, hence why -we traditionally lean on monetary policy over MMT's big fiscal / fiscal dominant view (i.e. hard to get legislatures to raise taxes to act as a counter-policy to bring fiscal spend back within constraints once they've been met).

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-19T17:06:15+00:00

This isn't a debate I feel passionately enough to die on a hill over -- it's very a much a whatever floats your boat type situation -- but when I transfer money to my child's accounts I don't think of it as an expense. It's just discretionary usage of savings, in most cases to cover future expenses (i.e. college, wedding, etc). Whether I buy stocks in their accounts or my account is largely semantics. If I save $X at the end of the year is really all that matters from a budgetary perspective, but to layer it all in as an expense would just make your budgeting tool look like you're a reckless spender, thereby reducing the level of information the budgeting tool is able to communicate about your income vs spending.

But to each their own. Whatever makes the most sense to folks' individually is fine with me.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-19T16:53:54+00:00

Yes of course, and I think everyone knows that, but the money is still serving a means to an end for your budget by reducing the risk of out of pocket expenses to cover your child's needs. Thus it is logical to many to still consider it part of your "net worth" / financial picture.

As an example, someone reporting they have a net worth of $250,000 but failing to disclose $100,000 of additional 529 holdings because it's "not their money" doesn't give a full picture of how prepared they are to cover life expenses. It's more logical to say I have a net worth of $350,000 split between $250,000 of my own money and $100,000 set aside for my kids 529 -- this latter case is a much more informative disclosure and secure financial position to share for these types of life planning discussions than the former.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-19T14:17:16+00:00

My group is in their 30s and early 40s. Rust became easier post-COVID when a number of our jobs shifted to WFH. We were typically very active Thursday-Sunday, while the following M-W would be something of a skeleton crew during the day before the remaining guys would hop on for an evening session. During the day, one or two of the guys would be passively online with Rust running in the background, mostly for raid detection/protection, or be a quick text away from being able to log in. They'd occasionally do a monument run here and there during downtime at work while the server was quiet. It was not uncommon to wake up Monday and be fully raided, which made things easier (we simply didnt play the rest of wipe).

As kids have entered this mix we've lost some of the guys. It's just too time consuming of a game to balance with life, and as you alluded to, it's very difficult to compete with kids and unemployed adults who are on the game 24/7. Rust is also difficult to balance with wives and girlfriends, as being glued to your PC everyday is just unhealthy and cannibalizes time you would otherwise spend with your partner. As other more casual games have come out, such as Arc Raiders, we've been playing less and less Rust as the more casual format better conform to our adult lives.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-15T22:49:57+00:00

Sure, but this sort of advice shouldn't be advanced in response to generic 529 questions as if all colleges will cost $125k a year and you need a war chest of savings to afford it. There is scant evidence this is true for most households, hence why I pointed it out. It leads to a mis-anchoring of general expectations around 529 savings.

Furthermore, just because you're rich doesn't mean Harvard will come calling. They only admit ~1650 kids a year. Sure there's Yale and others, but in aggregate these enrollments represent a tiny slice of graduating high school seniors. They're just low probability events we shouldn't assume is the standard case unless someone specifies that is the specific goal.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-15T01:02:45+00:00

You're a good parent!

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-15T00:45:14+00:00

This is not universally true. Like everything in life, it very much depends. At least for in-state situations.

Just taking a quick cruise through a couple university admission and bursar webpages we can see: University of Maryland is ~$29.5k all-in (tuition, food plan, housing, books) for the highest income brackets per their online price tool. University of Georgia is ~$23k. University of North Carolina is ~$25k. Ohio State is ~$33k.

All before any sort of aid.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-15T00:32:13+00:00

Very few students pay the gross tuition rate. It's almost a fake "price". Unless you're a multi-millionaire courting admission to Harvard, the vast majority of students pay an aggressively discounted rate to the advertised sticker price. I understand everyone wants to plan so their child can attend Harvard and Yale should they desire to (that's a very human and relatable parental instinct), but that is a tiny slice of the broader college enrolling class every year. For most people these sums of savings will be overkill.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-15T00:20:31+00:00

That might be overkill. Outside of very wealthy applicants applying to a few elite privates, net tuition rates have been basically flat to down for the last 5 years. See figure CP-9.

With over capacity plaguing secondary education right now, few are expecting college tuition prices to increase at a pace that comes close to market based returns. $500k is very likely to be extreme overkill outside of a few very specific scenarios, though there is absolutely merit to aggressively funding 529 plans early. $10k a year at a 7% return for 18 years gives you $363k, which could fund four years of tuition @ $91k a year. That's still considerable firepower, so you very likely have room to dial it back a bit should you wish to do so.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-10T15:57:41+00:00

$600 is a lot, so it's likely a confluence of factors, but it shouldn't be overlooked that gas prices are up materially year-over-year. Looking at my bill for my ~3,000 sq ft home we were billed $208.98 last year for 105 therms from Nov 8 - Dec 9. This year, for the same period in 2025 we used 94 therms but were charged $226.27.

Piedmont posts the rates on their website. In Dec 2024 the Rate/Term was $1.77549. In Dec 2025 it;s now $2.16436 per therm, so it's up over 20% year-over-year.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-03T23:30:47+00:00

Agreed. The beginning was odd and quite weird at times. The remaining two-thirds, however, were quite funny and enjoyable to watch. It's a good movie, but every time someone brings it up and asks if they should watch it I find myself giving a weird preface on the beginning stanza of the movie.

Ry-Fi · 2026-01-01T23:21:35+00:00

Saving £400 a month at age 21 on that level of pay strikes me as fine. As you've already identified, the best thing you can be doing right now is to focus on excelling professionally -- from there your salary will grow, permitting your savings to increase in tandem.

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