this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
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This is the reason I hate when people use the "recoup" argument. If anyone takes any free money to do research, then that isn't an expense to that company. If I start my own thing, and use my own money to cure cancer, then I get to set the price to recoup my own losses. If the citizens paid for it through taxes or donations, then it should be cost + % profit. 30% is very fair.
Making profit off of medication (or any other basic survival need, for that matter, and especially if they're publicly funded) is and always will be immoral.
This is a tough area for me. I think someone should be able to make a living researching and creating drugs. If that's all a company does they have to make money somehow. Admittedly, I have not put much thought past that, so there may be a simple solution. Research grants and other funding can pay salaries for a time, but that's a static income. Idk, I'm interested in how this would work without some amount of markup.
Unless profits means everything past salaries and stuff, then I do mostly agree. However I think there has to be allowance for cash on hand and further investment in infrastructure and all those other fun things needed to run and grow a business.
the problem is privatization for things that doesn't even make sense to privatize. if the cost of discovery is too high for a private entity then why are they the ones to supply it? they aren't actually doing anything but taking the foam from the top of what everyone else have collectively created. it's like the privatization of energy, a natural monopoly that literally runs into negative value through surplus. or the privatization of mandatory services that cannot be sustained at cost such as nation wide mail delivery. if it doesn't make sense the right choice is the only choice yet here we are lol.