Brazil gets 40% cut on AIDS drugs

Brad DeLong jbdelong at uclink.berkeley.edu
Tue Sep 4 13:43:29 PDT 2001



>How much fundamental research do pharma companies pay out of their
>own pockets?

No fundamental research; a lot of development, however--stuff that the NIH really is not very good at.


>And how much to they exploit the basic research done at the expense
>of governments and universities?

A lot.


>They're far more interested in tweaking a few atoms to come up with
>Prozac Mark IV than they are in doing anything very bold.

Yep. They follow the money. You want them putting a lot of scientists to work on mood-enhancers, hair-restorers, and wrinkle-removers, then go ahead and keep 'em from making a ton of money on drugs that do real things.


>The moral case for gouging the sick and the old, even in a rich
>country (where the sick and the old aren't likely to be very rich)
>is pretty weak.

The moral case for having a real national health service is very strong. The moral case for diminishing the cost of pharmaceuticals to Medicaid is not...

Brad DeLong



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