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HIV ‘vaccine’ could be made for just $40 a year for every patient (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 month ago (9 children)

In a study presented at the 25th international Aids conference in Munich on Tuesday, experts calculated that the minimum price for mass production of a generic version, based on the costs of lenacapavir’s ingredients and manufacturing, and allowing for 30% profit, was $40 a year , assuming 10 million people used it annually. In the long-term, 60 million people would probably need to take the drug preventatively to lower HIV levels significantly, they said.

Accounting for 30% profit seems reasonable to me.

Yet they're selling it for 1000x the price.

I understand they need to recoup research costs, but...

I have no other words.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

I understand they need to recoup research costs, but…

Except they don't even need to do that, because, as is with most pharmaceuticals, the research was almost fully funded by the taxpayer.

And the 30% profit is for a generic product, so the research has already been done.

So yeah, 30% profit is of course much better than 3000%, but both are still obscene profiteering off of a lifesaving product paid for by, and then essentially withheld for ransom from, the general public.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

cough I believe if 40$ means 30% profit, then the cost to produce it is 28$. With the current price of it being 42,250$, this means the profit rate is 42,250$/28$*100%=150,892%.

In words, one hundred fifty thousand percent.

It's insane. Even if I am wrong and it's 3000% or 30,000% profit on a product funded by tax-payer money, it's insane and should be criminal.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

By that logic, the profit on software (which is free to copy) is infinite. You need to look at revenues minus costs for the whole company, not for the specific act of manufacturing a pill.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah, I wasn't really paying that much attention, and went off of OP reply's 30 x 1000 and then missed out a zero lol

But yeah, it only gets more despicable the more accurate the numbers are..

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