2/11/19: Every day, I vow: You are not going to tumble down the rabbit hole. You will not try to cover all the insanity there is to see in Trumpistan.
So, let’s stick to one example today. Once again, we have proof of the predatory nature of many business and corporate types.
A drug once available free will cost $375,000.
Three thousand unlucky Americans suffer from Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome (LEMS), a rare and crippling neuromuscular disease. Until recently, under an FDA program that guaranteed “compassionate use,” a drug called 3,4-DAP was available to them free for treatment.
NBC explains what happened next:
Since 1992, 3,4-DAP, was made by
Jacobus Pharmaceuticals, a small New Jersey company, until a different company,
Catalyst, recently received the exclusive rights to the drug. Catalyst added a
preservative, renamed it Firdapse, and is now charging north of $375,000 a year
for the life-changing drug.
While history shows (this liberal blogger would posit) that capitalism is the system that promotes the greatest benefits for the greatest number, no one should imagine that morality governs the current or any other iteration of capitalism. It was legal to buy and sell slaves in 1819. Coal mining companies could require workers to accept payment in scrip and shop at the company store in 1919. Catalyst can charge a fortune for a drug the company didn’t invent in 2019.
All they did was add a preservative, give the drug a slightly different chemical configuration, and market Firdapse as a “new product.”
You don’t have to be a socialist to argue that capitalism, as
it functions in America today, could use a tune up for sure.
 |
| Slave auctions were once legal. |
No comments:
Post a Comment