REMEMBER THIS MAN?

He's Martin Shkreli, who in 2015,  as C.E.O. of Turing Pharmaceutical, raised the price of the life-saving drug, Daraprim from $13.50  to $750 a tablet -- an increase of 5456%, rendering its cost prohibitive, and sparking great outrage in this country and the rest of the world. There followed Congressional hearings, in which Shkreli, following advice of counsel, repeatedly took the fifth amendment, refusing to answer any questions except to confirm his name.  Shkreli's smirking face became known everywhere, and he became the poster-boy of Corporate Greed in general, and Big Pharma's price gouging in particular. In the media, he became known as "Pharma Bro," and "the most hated man in America."  

According to Wikipedia,  Shkreli had set a business strategy for Turing: "to obtain licenses on out-of-patent medicines and reevaluate the pricing of each in pursuit of windfall profits for the new company, without the need to develop and bring its own drugs to market. As markets for out-of-patent drugs are often small, and obtaining regulatory approval of a generic version is expensive, Turing calculated that with closed distribution for the product and no competition, it could set high prices." 

A closed distribution for the product, as Shkreli well knew, made it very difficult for would-be generic manufacturers to get enough samples to create and test a generic version to compete with the original. From a strictly business point of view, it was an ingenious plan, and a colleague in the Pharmaceutical Industry hailed him as a "brilliant thinker, a visionary."

All the same, in 2018 he was sentenced to 7 years in federal prison for securities fraud.  Federal prosecutors said that he had "engaged in multiple schemes to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit." All this is very serious indeed, and criminalizing such behavior protects those fortunate to have enough money to invest.  But what about those not so fortunate? What happens when the price of a life-saving drug is raised to the point where it becomes -- to those who have no money to invest -- unaffordable? Is that a crime? IN THIS COUNTRY, IT IS NOT.

As they say in New Jersey, "you have a problem with that?"

Do I ever!  Our healthcare system, like so much in this country, is skewed toward the interests of the moneyed classes. We ration our health care, making it unavailable to those who cannot afford it. 

Now don't get me wrong -- I think that the Profit Motive is a great thing -- so long as its excesses are well regulated, that the people and the planet may be protected. But the Profit Motive has no place in healthcare. where the interests of those seeking healing, and those seeking to maximize profits are opposed to each other.  Our system is riddled with examples, some of which I have presented in my posts up to now. God willing, I hope to show more. 

But I also hope to show that we need not put up with a system in which we spend twice as much on each patient than any other country in the world, with outcomes that are worse than many. And I also hope to show that our country as a whole has, in aggregate healthcare expense, an albatross around our necks choking us and inhibiting innovation. We can spend less and get more.

I speak from the perspective of an ordinary person, who -- other than experiencing the healthcare afforded me and my wife -- has no specific expertise or training in this field. BUT I KNOW INJUSTICE WHEN I SEE IT.

Of course readers are encouraged to contribute their comments (just click on the number of comments area and the comment box will appear). I hope to continue learning from them.

Until our next exploration of the Healthcare Jungle, I remain

Faithfully yours,

Dio