On Sat, 24 Apr 2021 05:37:56 -0500, Sqwertz >
wrote:

>On Fri, 23 Apr 2021 15:26:14 -0400, Boron Elgar wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 23 Apr 2021 09:35:23 -0500, Sqwertz >
>> wrote:
>>
>>>On Sun, 18 Apr 2021 10:01:46 -0400, jmcquown wrote:
>
>>>> You're not taking into account the cost of R&D, manufacturing and
>>>> distribution of those free vaccines. That's not cheap!
>>>
>>>They were given $2 billion each by the Feds. And the process they
>>>used was pretty easy. Phizer and Moderna beat NovaVax to market with
>>>NovaVax's own technique (spike protein), invented 15-20 year ago.
>>>NovaVax even had the first success with this one but they couldn't
>>>even mass produce enough for trials. Phizer and Moderna had the
>>>facilities to crank it out, NovaVax didn't.
>>
>> Pfizer was not part of Warp Speed. The feds did have an agreement to
>> PURCHASE doses if they proved effective, but they were not funded like
>> Moderna & AStraZeneca.
>
>Huh. I didn't know that. So Phizer is selling doses to the
>government at prices that don't account for the $2 billion front
>money? That was an excellent <ahem> move on their part. They can
>claim their funding was private and markups appropriately in
>perpetuity.
>
>Like I said, the tech was already there courtesy of NovaVax - it was
>easy to develop. Phizer probably even already had it before Warp
>Speed. So why take a $2B up front contract? Drug companies suck
>[money].
>
>-sw

Drug companies suck as do most for profit businesses and do the same
with govt money grubbing because politicians funded by pharmas have
consistently voted against allowing the Feds to even negotiate some
aspects of drug pricing, especially for programs such as Medicare and
Medicaid. Most countries outside the US have tighter controls on
costs.

Another example of this is right before our eyes now, but the EU seems
as wretched as the US about it- There is a pandemic and the governing
agencies of many countries are refusing to make patent exemptions for
vaccines so poorer countries can produce them locally and cheaply. No
need to let the dogs out- any pandemic exceptions can be tightly
fenced.

I do not feel more animus towards drug companies in general (ok...I
make an exception for Purdue Pharma) than I do with something such as
Amazon.