Great work here regarding EpiPens

[OCinBuffalo]

http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/08/29/reverse-voxsplaining-drugs-vs-chairs/

 

Yet another example that Ezra Klein(Vox) and his "explaining" is merely an exercise in hackery.

 

Ezra Klein: who aging baby boomers now get their "thinking" from, because most of the people they used to get it from are dead.

 

I mean, the entire analogy posted above is absolutely wondrous. There is not a single flaw, or a fuzzy area in it. That is literally how it works, in detail. I can give you all the detail that backs this guy's post. (And, gee, I wonder why it took so many words to create an accurate analogy about a complicated issue? Could it be that this guy doesn't give a F if you are reading this on a phone?)

 

You want something "explained"? This is better work than I have seen from Ezra in quite some time.

 

Once in a while, I head to my boomark folder that contains all of Ezra's pre-Obamacare posts. Fine definition of the problem. And, accurate definition of the solution. The funny part: he actually believed all of it. You can tell. He simply couldn't get beyond the linear and into the abstract.

 

This is the problem with most CFO-types. Or, any other professional balance-sheet/financial statement readers, for that matter.

Edited August 31, 2016 by OCinBuffalo

[boyst]

This is good, better than Ezra.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

 

There are a lot of different factors, but let me focus on the most annoying one. EpiPen manufacturer Mylan Inc spends about a million dollars on lobbying per year. OpenSecrets.org tells us what bills got all that money. They seem to have given the most to defeat S.214, the “Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act”. The bill would ban pharmaceutical companies from bribing generic companies not to create generic drugs.

 

Did they win? Yup. In fact, various versions of this bill have apparently failed so many times that FDA Law Blognotes that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different result”.

 

And that was at the crux of my original post. They jack up prices to gouge consumers, then spend the profits on graft to preserve their unique position.

[Joe Miner]

 

And that was at the crux of my original post. They jack up prices to gouge consumers, then spend the profits on graft to preserve their unique position.

When the people that make the game have a pay to win policy, that graft as you call it is part of the cost of doing business.

 

You still haven't shown any numbers on production and distribution costs to back up your gouging customers claim.

[Kevbeau]

This is good, better than Ezra.

I see what you did there.

[ALF]

Cheap Drug, Expensive Pen

The medicine costs about $1 a dose. It’s the delivery system that’s considered proprietary.

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/news/20160825/true-cost-epipen-coupons

If the drug were in a cartridge that could be replaced every year and use a similar unused pen, cost could be very low.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

When the people that make the game have a pay to win policy, that graft as you call it is part of the cost of doing business.

 

You still haven't shown any numbers on production and distribution costs to back up your gouging customers claim.

 

I see. So paying for policy's a good thing for you. You a mylan shareholder or something?

Edited September 2, 2016 by joesixpack

[Joe Miner]

 

I see. So paying for policy's a good thing for you. You a mylan shareholder or something?

You're too stupid to converse with. Good luck to you.

[unbillievable]

 

Cheap Drug, Expensive Pen

The medicine costs about $1 a dose. It’s the delivery system that’s considered proprietary.

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/news/20160825/true-cost-epipen-coupons

If the drug were in a cartridge that could be replaced every year and use a similar unused pen, cost could be very low.

 

 

Gasoline is cheap, but cars are expensive. We're being gouged by the automobile industry!

[/dev/null]

 

Gasoline is cheap, but cars are expensive. We're being gouged by the automobile industry!

And the largest cost of producing an automobile is driven by Big Labor.

 

So who is gouging us on the price of automobiles?

[....lybob]

And the largest cost of producing an automobile is driven by Big Labor.

 

So who is gouging us on the price of automobiles?

link?

[unbillievable]

And the largest cost of producing an automobile is driven by Big Labor.

 

So who is gouging us on the price of automobiles?

 

I'm guessing you're the guy that believes that bread should cost the same as the flour,yeast, and water.

[ALF]

And the largest cost of producing an automobile is driven by Big Labor.

 

So who is gouging us on the price of automobiles?

 

 

Jason Lancaster, I'm the editor of AccurateAutoAdvice.com

average vehicle pricing (emphasis on average):

10-15% of a vehicle's cost is labor

Another 20-30% of the cost is materials

50-60% of a vehicle's cost is "overhead," defined as the plant that builds the car, the army of engineers employed by each manufacturer, the corporate structures (HR, accounting, etc.), advertising and marketing costs, etc.

10-20% of the cost goes towards sunk costs (engine development costs, chassis modeling, etc), but these are often included in the "overhead" figure above, so basically you can infer plants and the rest are 40-50% of a vehicle's cost.

5% is profit (sometimes a little more, sometimes a whole lot less)

https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-the-cost-of-a-typical-car-is-labor

[/dev/null]

Sorry, my bad. Big Labor (21%) is the second biggest cost behind steel (22%)

 

http://marketrealist.com/2015/02/raw-materials-biggest-cost-driver-auto-industry/

 

But if you consider that the bulk of "Administration" (10%) is performed by labor....

[B-Man]

Competition Works Best to Control Drug Prices.

 

Companies are indeed greedy, but they are always greedy — it’s a constant, like the speed of light. You don’t see prices suddenly popping up because of a constant. You see prices suddenly popping up because something has changed.

 

And what might that something be? One thing that changed is that nine years ago, Mylan bought the rights to make the device. And Mylan decided to raise prices.

But that’s not quite enough of an answer. Companies often decide they’d like to raise prices. And yet, we rarely see markets where prices shoot up by a factor of five when there’s been little change in the underlying costs.

 

However, those markets have something that the market for EpiPens lacks: competition. People trying to produce a generic version of the EpiPen are held back by the difficulties of getting approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

 

 

 

 

Obviously, the solution is more bureaucracy.

[....lybob]

Sorry, my bad. Big Labor (21%) is the second biggest cost behind steel (22%)

 

http://marketrealist.com/2015/02/raw-materials-biggest-cost-driver-auto-industry/

 

But if you consider that the bulk of "Administration" (10%) is performed by labor....

so is administration unionized or is anyone who works Big Labor?

[/dev/null]

so is administration unionized or is anyone who works Big Labor?

I love how this thread started as hating on Big Pharma but once somebody pointed out Big Labor you got sand in the sniz

[unbillievable]

I love how this thread started as hating on Big Pharma but once somebody pointed out Big Labor you got sand in the sniz

 

so is administration unionized or is anyone who works Big Labor?

 

In a fight between Big Administration, Big Labor, Big Government, and Big Consumer... who wins?

Where does Big Environment fit into the equation?

[bbb]

 

Competition Works Best to Control Drug Prices.

 

Companies are indeed greedy, but they are always greedy — it’s a constant, like the speed of light. You don’t see prices suddenly popping up because of a constant. You see prices suddenly popping up because something has changed.

 

And what might that something be? One thing that changed is that nine years ago, Mylan bought the rights to make the device. And Mylan decided to raise prices.

But that’s not quite enough of an answer. Companies often decide they’d like to raise prices. And yet, we rarely see markets where prices shoot up by a factor of five when there’s been little change in the underlying costs.

 

However, those markets have something that the market for EpiPens lacks: competition. People trying to produce a generic version of the EpiPen are held back by the difficulties of getting approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

 

 

 

 

Obviously, the solution is more bureaucracy.

 

 

I haven't read much more than the headlines on this whole deal, but that was my first and constant thought - where is the competition?

[ALF]

Mark Baum believes the relentless EpiPen price hikes are "shameful" and his company is plotting a $100 alternative for the lifesaving allergy treatment.

Baum, known for offering a $1 substitute for the $750 AIDS drug Daraprim, told CNNMoney on Tuesday that his company Imprimis Pharmaceuticals (IMMY) has been quietly working on a compounded version of EpiPen for months. The company hopes to have it ready by the end of the year.

The plans come amid the latest price gouging scandal over the 400% increase in EpiPen prices by Mylan (MYL). The drug maker and its CEO Heather Bresch have become the newest faces of corporate greed

http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/30/investing/epipen-alternative-100-dollars/index.html