On 4/24/2021 6:32 AM, Boron Elgar wrote:
> 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.
>


Patents are on a country by country basis. If a poorer country wants a
patent exemption, it can do so and the EU has nothing to say about it.