This week, the Biden administration had an opportunity to stop price gouging from
big pharma on one particular kind of drug that many cancer patients need.
They chose not to do that.
Instead, they allowed this particular drug called Xtandi to continue at
its current price which can be for some people $180,000 a year.
This necessary cancer medication, by the way, sorry,
that's what it costs here in the United States,
depending on what country you live in, it can cost 3 to 6 times less.
So, it's certainly possible to make it available for much less money.
We're just not gonna do that.
So first of all, some info about this drug.
The patent on Xtandi is currently held by pharma giant Astellas,
which in turn shares the US market with Pfizer.
It's been proven to be effective in treating prostate cancer and
is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines,
according to some great work by the Lever.
The drugs ingredients very importantly were developed at UCLA,
a public university with grants from the US Army and National Institutes of Health.
So, a case could be made that this medication would have never been produced
if it wasn't for taxpayer money,
we helped to produce this medication that now can cause $180,000 per year.
So, what could the Biden administration have done that would potentially cut
the cost of this?
Well, in late 2021, prostate cancer patients, Robert Sachs, Claire Love, and
Eric Sawyer petitioned the US Department of Health and
Human Services to exercise its quote, march in rights against Xtandi.
So, under the Bayh-Dole Act, the federal government can reclaim and redistribute
patents for inventions created with public funding, enabling generic competitors to
produce cheaper versions when quote, action is necessary to alleviate health or
safety needs or when an invention's benefits are not being made, quote,
available to the public on reasonable terms.
So, it definitely is not being made available on reasonable terms if it can
cost $180,000, the price of a house in some parts of the country.
And that's just for a one-year supply.
And action is clearly necessary to alleviate health or safety needs because
people are suffering and dying from these forms of cancer on a regular basis.
And so, by the way, even if you have Medicaid, you might have to
pay $10,000 a year to pay for this far less than other people perhaps, but
still an amazingly high amount of money for people who don't have it to spare.
And it isn't like they haven't already made a lot of money off of this drug.
The patent holders of Xtandi have earned over $20 billion from it.
And so, the Biden administration was receiving pressure from numerous
members of Congress and medicine affordability advocacy groups.
But despite that, the NIH declared earlier this week, that it quote,
does not believe that the use of march-in authority would
be an effective means of lowering the price of the drug.
First of all, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist, I'm not a lawyer, not many
things, but it definitely would be an effective way to cut the price of this.
If you make the patent available for generic competitors,
I have a feeling they're gonna be able to produce something that's less expensive
than $180,000 per year.
That is not a logical or reasonable explanation for
them stepping in to stop this, particularly considering the amount
of lobbying that's come in to try to stop march-in rights from exercise and
in particular from people like Xavier Basra's previous commentary, even in
recent years about how the government needs to exercise this power more often.
But all of a sudden once he's partly in charge of it,
suddenly not interested in doing it.
>> Okay, so now let me explain to you how almost everybody in power in this country
systematically lies to you.
Javier Basra is a giant liar, Joe Biden is an enormous liar, but
I think the corporate media,
mainstream media that you're used to are the biggest liars of all.
So, but let me prove my case and of course, the drug companies are liars.
The only people who would be stupid enough to believe that drug companies
are not liars are reporters in this country.
Okay, so they say we need incentive for research and
development to make these amazing drugs.
But that sounds pretty compelling.
The drugs are amazing, they do save a lot of lives.
I want them to have an incentive for that.
And by the way, I'm a capitalist.
So, I believe in that incentive structure.
Well, first of all, $20 billion wasn't enough incentive?
I'll take it and I'll cap it at 20, I'll cap my profits at 20 billion, okay?
And I say Cenk that fair.
That's a drug company that's their whole infrastructure is built around that and
you couldn't do that.
No, I could, I could do the same exact thing.
That's an outrageous thing, is it?
It was about 100% at UCLA.
The government didn't develop some of it, it developed all of it.
They didn't need a dollar for research and development.
The government then handed it over to the companies and
the companies said thanks for the $20 billion gift suckers.
And then they just sold it.
I could set up a company too, I'm a businessman,
I could set up a company today to sell that drug like that in a week.
And you know how much it might cost me?
It might cost me 20 million.
And then I would take the profit of 20 billion and put it in my goddamn pocket.
This is an absolute robbery, okay?
So, the drug companies might help around the edges.
But in this case, again, 100% developed by the United States government and
taxpayers.
Hey, taxpayers, you know what happens when a company develops something and
hands it to another company, they get most of the profits.
Did you get any of the profits?
No, we got none of the profits.
And corporate medias are, I can't tell.
Is that what happened?
The government paid for 100% of the research and development.
And all of these lies that we printed 1000 times in every article about how they need
to be in incentivized for research and development.
They were lies.
Well, what am I a reporter, okay?
Javier Basra, when he's out of power, when he's not in the administration,
we have to make sure we lift this rule so you could have drugs at reasonable prices.
Now he is in power, he can do something about it.
Canada for example, it costs 1/5 of the price we pay five times what Canada does.
For some of you, Canada is like one step away from you.
What's magical about Canada?
Their government is not corrupt.
They don't take bribes 24 7 from drug makers.
You know how much bribes the drug companies gave?
I'm sorry, mainstream media reporters, let me be polite.
Campaign contributions.
A quarter of a billion dollars, a quarter of a billion.
Do you think the drug companies, are you as stupid as a mainstream media reporter
that says, no, I think that they gave it for the general welfare?
And I think Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden and all the people who took the money.
They just took it just because they happen to agree that drug prices should be five
times higher here than they are in Canada.
They think that's a good policy.
It's a bribe.
Everybody on the planet knows it's a bribe except mainstream media reporters
are like, no, that's outrageous, these scandalous young Turks calling it a bribe.
That's just a quarter of a billion dollars just free from the drug companies.
They don't care about these regulations.
They're wonderful human people.
We're just trying to do research and development, okay?
Basra, you're a liar, you never ever meant it.
And then what it was, so he says, I demand lower drug prices.
What happens next?
Mainstream media does articles about, Basra wants lower drug prices.
Basra says lower drug prices.
He's in charge.
Okay, great you have an amazing opportunity right here,
you can do it right now.
I just messing with you.
No, you're gonna pay five times what Canadians pay.
And if you don't care, you're a Medicare patient.
You can't afford $10,000 a year, you're gonna die.
You're gonna die so that they can have bigger profits.
By the way, one of these companies, the main company is a Japanese company.
They made a billion dollars off of this drug just in 2021 in profits.
No, the Japanese company has to get paid a billion dollars.
You die for the Japanese company.
Mainstream media, did any of you call them out, any of them?
Joe Biden, what does this mainstream media tell you?
The price of insulin is capped.
He capped one drug out of thousands and tens of thousands of drugs.
He capped one drug, insulin.
Joe Biden is lower drug prices.
Joe Biden, American hero, Joe lower prices, insulin prices, and $35 insulin.
No, Joe Biden, you lower drug prices.
No, Joe Biden is 1000% in favor of higher drug prices.
Now get a load of this, right-wingers.
Why is it your right-wing media flipping out against Joe Biden like we are?
We're on the left and
we're tearing Biden's face off on this cuz he can get you killed with this.
Why hasn't Tucker Carlson or Fox News or any of them said anything about it?
Because they're also corporate media.
It's good cop, bad cop.
Whenever it's in his culture wars.
You all, can you believe the goddamn M and MBS?
Trans people You get really mad.
He's doing a robbery.
Fox News loves it when you are robbed.
CNN, New York Times they all love it when you are robbed and
they would not tell you the truth under penalty of law.
>> Yeah, I mean, look, I wanna be fair [COUGH].
The Biden administration was a part of lowering insulin prices.
And that was an initiative of theirs.
So, like that, that is something that should be noted, but
it's undercut by something like this.
And the problem is that they felt insulin would be more of a political benefit
to them because it's so widely used and this is a lot more under the radar.
And the problem with it is that Biden is actually just not really a progressive,
he's a cipher, as we like to say on the majority report.
He goes with where the party currently is.
And that means you're not really tethered to any leftist, progressive, democratic,
socialist ideology that would allow you to be consistent on these kinds of things,
including when it comes to cancer drugs because I'm gonna be a little
personal here.
But Biden has run on cancer and has spoken about it quite a bit because of his
horrible unimaginable experience with his son, Beau, who passed away from cancer.
And so, you would think that when he speaks about cancer during the state of
the union, that these kinds of decisions made within the administration,
he would be a bit more consistent on it.
But the problem is that he is not somebody who has a real peg
to any leftist organization or specific ideology on this front.
And in an insane society,
this is what would happen if the government helps you develop a drug.
By the way, this applies for the COVID vaccine as well.
Then the government has the capacity to set price limits.
That's it.
That's it game over.
We're not doing this.
We're giving you money to develop a drug.
You take that money,
then you make a ton off of it by price gouging that should not be allowed.
In fact, with the COVID vaccine that should have been a part that should
be owned by the government.
We gave billions and billions of dollars with no strings attached to Moderna and
Pfizer.
They have the technology, they developed it with government money.
Now they're with the end of the emergency authorization.
Another crazy thing that Biden is doing for
seemingly no reason except to appeal to right-wingers.
The Moderna and Pfizer are gonna gouge on the COVID vaccine and
people that don't have insurance, hey, you're out of luck and
you're gonna have to pay out of pocket in order to not get COVID which we've
seen has effects on people, particularly if you have a preexisting condition.
So, this lack of consistency stretches
throughout the Biden administration.
And frankly, we just have such the private healthcare system,
big Pharma has such a chokehold on our country that standing up to
them like our government can't even seem to stand up to them.
When in any sane society again, something like the COVID vaccine
the intellectual property would have been waived,
it would have been free to everybody, including underdeveloped nations,
which is what the frankly western governments were responsible for allowing
those countries to get sick because, hey, Pharma in the west has to get rich.
>> Okay, last quick things here.
Well, first of all, my personal opinion, they get zero credit for
insulin cuz it's a smoke screen.
They regulated one drug to distract you from the fact that
they are not regulating all other drugs.
And they say, no, don't [CROSSTALK] don't worry though.
We're also gonna do nine more drugs in 2026.
Wow, no, Emma, a no-credit zero.
It's a smoke screen.
Whatever.
So that they could screw over 300 million people on every other drug and
idiot media can go insulin.
The only drug that matters.
He has lower drug prices.
>> Say that to people who are on insulin.
I mean, come on-.
>> Yeah, you should have free insulin.
Like you should have all those other drugs under Medicare for all, Joe Biden
is lying to you and you will die from something else because he is using that as
a smoke screen to make sure that his goddamn donors get rich off of you dying.
So, no, no credit for one stupid drug.
Is a perfectly great drug, don't get me wrong even though I'm angry, okay?
>> [LAUGH] Incredibly widely used.
>> Emma, are you kidding me?
You don't know that that's a smoke screen.
>> No, I know that it genuinely actually affects.
There's millions of people- >> It's like saying, hey,
I'm gonna bomb a building but I took one person out.
Hey, you're welcome.
Hey, everybody else in the building, you're dead.
I should get big credit for the one guy I walked out of the building.
What do you mean?
>> I would like to say that I'm also very stupid and very much.
>> [CROSSTALK] fixing everything with one fell swoop.
I think that what the government can do to help people,
they should get credit for it.
It makes your argument stronger when you make, give them credit, and
then hammer them elsewhere.
>> I'm not giving them credit for one out of 20,000, 200,000 drugs.
It's meant to deceive you.
I am not gonna fall for a trap to deceive our audience.
Okay, we disagree on it, God bless.
If you guys are in the M and John campaign, you think what drug Joe Biden.
Joe, what drug?
My God it's amazing.
Joe Biden is awesome.
Okay, I'm straw manning.
I'm sorry, I know you didn't say that, okay?
Okay, so last thing- >> Go joe.
>> Okay, NIH sorry, I lost the earpiece.
Everything's gone.
NIH puts out a statement that says, hey, the law is we should do this if
it's available at a reasonable at a reasonable price.
If it's not available at a reasonable price,
you should do this action that they refuse to do.
The NIH put a statement saying, what do you mean?
We're not doing anything cuz it's available.
That's not what the law says available at a reasonable price.
They purposely left out at a reasonable price and said, what it's available?
If you have $189,000, it's available.
>> Yachts are available.
>> This is how we lose faith in institutions.
NIH has great scientists, I trust them on the science.
We're not lunatic right-wingers who are like, scientists and doctors are evil.
No, they're great people at NIH.
But the very top levels are completely corrupted.
They are definitely gonna work for drug companies after they leave.
That's why they put out an absurd statement like this is available at
$189,000.
Did you hear about insulin?
>> Yeah, I mean, this was a financial burden for 15% of Americans,
10 to 15% of Americans that's been helped by that.
That doesn't mean that he's good on health care.
I just listed off a bunch of reasons why he's inconsistent and bad.
But this is a good thing.
That was a good thing that happened.
>> Sorry, Emma, he can't hear you, so I have to translate.
She told you to go f yourself.
>> Fair enough, I don't get offended.