JD_2B
Little Vixen
I've seen studies of the research costs involved in getting a single new drug to market. The government is not investing as much as you might imagine; my understanding is that Pharmaceutical companies get less than 10% of their research costs subsidized, but I would gladly see any current figures as mine are a decade out of date.More affordable to whom?? The seller or the buyer? Sure it would be cheaper for the seller.. Thats not the point..
Plus, if the majority of the research costs are covered by grants (which are allotted only due to patients also being taxpayers), then perhaps the real key to the research facility's profit margins should be in cutting costs in the first place, instead of doing this "community-wide collection of funds" common to insolvent businesses.
Well, that is not the fault of the people with MS, is it now? Again, we can not make excuses for companies becoming insolvent due to their own overspending and underplanning.
By more affordable I meant for the patients, and I mentioned MS because I know the research there is spotty for "lack of profit potential" - despite the number of people with MS, the cost of developing treatment options is seen as too high. The investment cannot be recouped, so the research is not done. This is what I intended to convey; that the current Patent laws may not give a chance for companies in certain fields to recoup their investment, so the research lags, and people have no treatment option at all.
Coming up with a new drug is a labor intensive task, requiring skilled laborers and expensive equipment. The costs are staggering not due to mismanagement, but because the task faced is so difficult. The choice faced is not "Make drugs only for the rich OR Make drugs for everyone" the true choice is "Research no new drugs OR acknowledge that they will be very expensive for the first decade or two after their development."
There is no magic answer that lets us have new drugs cheap. Acknowledging that fact does not make me a heartless monster.
Thank you very much.. Your post was very enlightening and helpful. I wasn't calling you heartless, by the way.. =)