there's a new drug on the market that will help cure hepatitis C which of
course
is great news because for a very long time it's been very difficult to cure it
is a liver disease and it affects more people than HIV does in fact let me give
you some numbers
%uh hepatitis C impact about three million Americans
and also 117 million worldwide when it comes to HIV is 1.1 million Americans
and $34 million globally so obviously both are very serious but more victims
of hepatitis C
so thankfully there is a new drug on the market that can help cure it it's known
as
so ball deep and it costs about one
thousand dollars per pill and if you're wondering how long you need to be on
this treatment in order to get cured
it's about at 12 weeks for the program and it runs the average user
about 84 thousand dollars so the reason why this is being covered by the press
right now is because
some are questioning whether or not this is a fair price for something that is
supposed to cure
a terrible disease right and there has been some analysis on this
and you know this indicates that if you
want to produce the drug it's about $150 to $250 per person
right to present to produce the drug why you need to charge a thousand dollars
per pill
think I'm gonna play devil's advocate for a moment and because I have major
problems with the
have pharmaceutical medical industrial complex in this country and I hoped
that we have a for-profit medical system I think it's from
highly immoral but aside from that being
being the case that we do have a for-profit medical
a system in this country yes that is the cost of production at the drug but
what's the factor here R&D on this drive how long did it take to develop how many
people have to be
paid how much money was funneled in to coming up with this treatment and a lot
of times what happens is that one kinda
hallmark drug for a drug company for pharmaceutical company have to pay for
development of other drugs that they also do so
I think sometimes it's it a little more complicated than just
this is how much it cost to produce this is how much they should sell aborn order
to get a good profit
that being said is this a fair profit I don't know
because the things like significantly higher seems very excessive and I i like
the you point all that out care because there are some details that I should
mention to the audience so for instance
Gilead Sciences Inc that is the pharmaceutical company that produces
this drug
they actually acquired another company that began and other research on it and
they spent about $11 billion dollars on that right
so large it would be well you know what they need to get a return on their
investment and they need to turn a profit let's keep it real we have a
profit motive here
and they want to make some money off it but even considering that
all they would need I is about 150,000 people to purchase their drug in order
to already make up for that investment
anything above that is now going to be a profit right so
let's let's take that into consideration and bring the cost down however after
southern vice president others pharmaceutical company talk to the press
and not suggestion was offered to him he basically said
yet we're likely to do that we might help some americans when it comes to the
cost
but we're looking to make some money here and they know that they're looking
to make money in american market because truth be told this is that this is a
horrible epidemic in america is in even worse epidemic globally
they know they can't make that kind of money in a global market the have to
charge less money once they start selling this drug to people in
second and third world in developing nations and so america's going to be the
market where they have to recoup their investment unfortunately
now that being said most americans in this country now have access to
to affordable health care and so I wonder how much their health insurance
is going to play into this conversation
they you they've got to be able to get access even if they have a pre-existing
condition like hepatitis C
so is this drug going to be covered by their
health plan let's hope so yeah it's always interesting to see the specifics
on the Affordable Care Act in and how it will impact certain cases like this
but another thing to take into consideration is that some people do not
need
I'm some people need more than 12 weeks of treatment some people need double the
trip in order to cure
the condition so alright I mean how can you imagine even spending more than
eighty four thousand dollars on curing your cell from hepatitis C thats
inconceivable I mean if someone came to me and said you need that money
to cure yourself from something that will eventually kill you HK come up with
that kinda money
yeah i know i here here's another interesting counterpoint
there which again it not a moral argument on my point I might on my side
but I think it's an important point to make
until this drug was developed there was no cure for hepatitis C there were
only treatments they were only thing that would keep the disease at bay and
they were they had horrible sight they of course what side effects
and a lifetime of those treatments may face treatments was going to run is
significantly more than it was not so that's actually good
save the average person would have but I didn't win money so wat me so this
this is it G definite cure for hepatitis A title no kidding yeah
I'm not feeling that great so would you pay eighty four thousand dollars a year
happy if this is for real this for real
so how are you at one point I wanna make see you gave like the most reasonable
example love the calculus that goes into well we we spent a lot on my develop it
we make our money back you were totally reasonable some people I think on the
right would go a step farther and sorta
at with like it i guess im Atlas Shrugged sorta point if you like how
dare you even discuss how much they should be allowed
get to price it as it like well you know bizarre free market were competing and
they came up with the good drugs so they get the charge whatever they want
but the problem is is that the market is not free at all
because they're going to have a protected patent on this for
as 40 in the future as you can see and even right now in the the TPP
negotiations are going on right now one big part of it
is increasing the duration of medical patents so you can't on the one hand say
we developed in a free market and so we should be on the charger everyone and
then say
there will be no competition from generic substitutes for this
per 1720 even longer years you can't have it both ways like but apparently
you can begin and that was the thing that is the market that they see in this
is my main problem this is my
my biggest problem with a for-profit health care system
health care i think is an unalienable right I think that health care
is something that I have a very strong socialist view
when it comes to health care and I'm not afraid to say about I think that we
should have a single pair
option in this country and i think that everybody should be able to
to access to affordable health care because
you cannot control wife somebody gets sick and why somebody else does and it
has absolutely nothing to do
with Dani Sordo market you know aum's inflows in the real danger here is that
when you have a free market system surrounding health care
your inventive i'd to keep people thick abscess such
and damaging damaging system that we have in this country i mean
are there any success stories and socialize many I
this is where at any point anywhere else in the world where people have a better
outcome
medically where the Maha every got everything all in delaware a shit
there are you Andrea every time they have to wait a little while
Yahoo they do that tell the truth the interminable saying Canada you have to
wait longer to your treatment
which is true you ask a man they say you had sex yet the way and then you ask him
a bold question which doesn't get reported
would you prefer to go to the american summer-like part no I rather wait for a
little I'll did you know that we are the only developed nation
in the world where it's legal to market
drug store directly to the consumer yes is that they are more all
yes what do you think about what everywhere else in the world because it
highly immoral
ask your doctor about whatever anti-anxiety anti-depression drugs that
we're offering you right now
and have access the WebMD you know better than he does asking about all
sorts and expect to have to quote him as Bill Maher 17 i think is one of the most
brilliant quote that he's ever said
when and I'm not mad they a verbatim but once you are asking your doctor for
drugs and set him telling you which drugs should take
he's no longer your doctor he is now your no I happen to bed so it's always
true
yes that is true red point to the fact that this
but sometimes they will give it to you yeah