'Absolute Robbery': Gilead Announces $3,120 Price Tag for Covid-19 Drug Developed With $70 Million in Taxpayer Support

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Northerner

Northerner

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Consumer advocates reacted with disgust Monday to an announcement by Gilead Sciences that it will charge U.S. hospitals around $3,120 per privately insured patient for a treatment course of remdesivir, a drug which has proven modestly effective at speeding Covid-19 recovery times.

Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen's Access to Medicines Program, called Gilead's pricing—which works out to around $520 per dose for non-government buyers like hospitals—"an offensive display of hubris and disregard for the public" and slammed the Trump administration for failing to ensure that the price of a drug developed with substantial taxpayer support is affordable for all.

Maybarduk pointed to Institute for Clinical and Economic Review research showing Gilead could still make a profit by pricing remdesivir at $310 per course.

"Gilead has priced at several thousand dollars a drug that should be in the public domain. For $1 per day, remdesivir can be manufactured at scale with a reasonable profit," Maybarduk said in a statement. "Gilead did not make remdesivir alone. Public funding was indispensable at each stage, and government scientists led the early drug discovery team. Allowing Gilead to set the terms during a pandemic represents a colossal failure of leadership by the Trump administration."

www.commondreams.org

'Absolute Robbery': Gilead Announces $3,120 Price Tag for Covid-19 Drug Developed With $70 Million in Taxpayer Support | Common Dreams

"Taxpayers provided funding for the development of this drug. Now Gilead is price-gouging off it during a pandemic. Beyond disgusting," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
www.commondreams.org www.commondreams.org

US capitalism for you :(
 
Oh yes, let's throw out the baby with the bathwater and scrap 'Obamacare' asap. And also re-elect me for another period of white supremacist government, cos its obvious you all like me.
 
Northerner said:
Consumer advocates reacted with disgust Monday to an announcement by Gilead Sciences that it will charge U.S. hospitals around $3,120 per privately insured patient for a treatment course of remdesivir, a drug which has proven modestly effective at speeding Covid-19 recovery times.

Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen's Access to Medicines Program, called Gilead's pricing—which works out to around $520 per dose for non-government buyers like hospitals—"an offensive display of hubris and disregard for the public" and slammed the Trump administration for failing to ensure that the price of a drug developed with substantial taxpayer support is affordable for all.

Maybarduk pointed to Institute for Clinical and Economic Review research showing Gilead could still make a profit by pricing remdesivir at $310 per course.

"Gilead has priced at several thousand dollars a drug that should be in the public domain. For $1 per day, remdesivir can be manufactured at scale with a reasonable profit," Maybarduk said in a statement. "Gilead did not make remdesivir alone. Public funding was indispensable at each stage, and government scientists led the early drug discovery team. Allowing Gilead to set the terms during a pandemic represents a colossal failure of leadership by the Trump administration."

www.commondreams.org

'Absolute Robbery': Gilead Announces $3,120 Price Tag for Covid-19 Drug Developed With $70 Million in Taxpayer Support | Common Dreams

"Taxpayers provided funding for the development of this drug. Now Gilead is price-gouging off it during a pandemic. Beyond disgusting," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
www.commondreams.org www.commondreams.org

US capitalism for you :(
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I shouldn't worry too much, trials in this country show that it doesn't have any significant effect on outcomes, marginal at best. The trick is not to get coronavirus in the first place.
 
Incidentally, if the name of the company (Gilead) sounds familiar, it's the name of the Republic in the dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. It's not coincidence, the Novel came first.
 
mikeyB said:
Incidentally, if the name of the company (Gilead) sounds familiar, it's the name of the Republic in the dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. It's not coincidence, the Novel came first.
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Well spotted Mike, I too thought I'd heard that name "Gilead" before! That's the totalitarian movement that overthrows the US government.

Interestingly, definition of "novel":

"of a new and unusual kind; different from anything seen or known before"

That dictionary definition fits quite well for both the book and the virus wouldn't you agree?
 
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mikeyB said:
Incidentally, if the name of the company (Gilead) sounds familiar, it's the name of the Republic in the dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. It's not coincidence, the Novel came first.
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Mike,

The award winning 1985 cautionary tale set in the near future "The Handmaids Tale" was written by Margaret Atwood and is basically about the removal of peoples rights by The Republic of Gilead. There was a message in the writing of the book; that if things continue as they are, they may one day come to be a reality. At the time, the book did very well and won many awards. The Handmaid's Tale won: The 1985 Governor General's Award, The first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987, was nominated for the 1986 Nebula Award, The 1986 Booker Prize and the 1987 Prometheus Award.

After the U.S. success of The Handmaids Tale in 1985-87, in 1988 Oligogen (bio-pharmaceutical company) decided to change their name to "Gilead" (current makers of the Covid19 antiviral drug Remdesiver).

The only other possible reason for Oligogen changing their company name to Gilead was after they heard about Gileads Balm? an ancient fragrant balm from Gilead hills in Jordan.
 
Amity Island said:
The only other possible reason for Oligogen changing their company name to Gilead was after they heard about Gileads Balm?
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wikipedia says that's the reason, as does Motley Fool. "The name was inspired by the balm of Gilead, an ancient medicine referenced several times in the Bible."
 
Well I knew my recollection of Gilead predated my recollection of Margaret Atwood!
 
I’ll have the £5 off-patent steroid if I need anything thanks!

At least that actually stops people dying, rather than just cutting average hospital stay by 3-4 days 🙄
 
mikeyB said:
Incidentally, if the name of the company (Gilead) sounds familiar, it's the name of the Republic in the dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. It's not coincidence, the Novel came first.
Click to expand...
Mike,
I would agree, IMO it's no coincidence that "Oligogen" changed their name to "Gilead" just after the handmaids tale book became a best seller. Let's put it into context. Gileads balm has been around for thousands of years. Oligogen, having just started their company in 1987, in a matter of months "suddenly" decided they didn't like the brand name they'd come up with. I believe, it's way more likely that someone heard the term "Gilead" after reading the handmaids tale, otherwise, they'd surely of started with the name Gilead to begin with?

Also, it's worth noting how often do companies change their name for no beneficial reason? The most common reasons a company changes it's name are:
Bad reputation.
Brand Confusion - too similar to another brand name.
Product has changed.
Founders have since left the company.
It's too closely tied to a specific location.
It's too generic.

I don't think any of those reasons applied in this case.
 
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