[Strayan]

No doubt AIDS research is no long the top global priority it once was, none the less, research would still continue to this day.

I recall back in the day after losing loved ones, friends, acquaintances to AIDS, where and when will it all end?

I was never infected with aids, but it has left its mark on my psyche.

[ObscureandFuzzy]

A noble thought, but at least in the USA, I don’t know that it would actually happen in the public sector. And the private sector probably would rather have people with HIV having a normal life expectancy on the current set of medications for decades as opposed to having a cure.

[Muscle4Muscle2009]

There’s too much money to be made by pharma/’research’/3rd parties, etc., in diseases like AIDS/Cancer as sickness, disease and death are for-profit industries in the U.S. Think about this: The world managed to find solutions to a pandemic in 2020 and yet we STILL cannot seem to overcome two of the deadliest diseases in the world. I am not void of the fact that there was ALOT of money stolen/made by 3rd parties in the Pandemic cycle but the point is, the collective medical community found antidotes to the cause. Yet, somehow we just can’t seem to put our finger on the root causes of other diseases. LIke I said, too much money to be made. Sickening and disgusting. Greed will be our undoing.

[ObscureandFuzzy]

Muscle4Muscle2009

Member December 1, 2023 at 2:13 am

There’s too much money to be made by pharma/’research’/3rd parties, etc., in diseases like AIDS/Cancer as sickness, disease and death are for-profit industries in the U.S. Think about this: The world managed to find solutions to a pandemic in 2020 and yet we STILL cannot seem to overcome two of the deadliest diseases in the world. I am not void of the fact that there was ALOT of money stolen/made by 3rd parties in the Pandemic cycle but the point is, the collective medical community found antidotes to the cause. Yet, somehow we just can’t seem to put our finger on the root causes of other diseases. LIke I said, too much money to be made. Sickening and disgusting. Greed will be our undoing.

Which leads to the question: Should the pharmaceutical industry in the USA be nationalized?

[metta]

I don’t think it needs to be nationalized. But being that most of the research is at least partially financed with government funds, there should be a reasonable limit to how much drugs can be priced above its cost to make. As an alternative, allow other manufactures to manufacture the drugs if they are priced above a certain amount, for example, over 10 times the cost to make.

Pure capitalism has its failures, and it is up to the government to design it to stop abuse.

[ObscureandFuzzy]

@metta

Member December 3, 2023 at 1:10 am

I don’t think it needs to be nationalized. But being that most of the research is at least partially financed with government funds, there should be a reasonable limit to how much drugs can be priced above its cost to make. As an alternative, allow other manufactures to manufacture the drugs if they are priced above a certain amount, for example, over 10 times the cost to make.

Pure capitalism has its failures, and it is up to the government to design it to stop abuse.

I just did a quick compare:

Microsoft profit margin: 39.44%

Apple profit margin: 25.66%

Pfizer profit margin: 15.3%

Novartis profit margin: 14.56%

Exxon profit margin: 10.09%

Seems like if there’s any “unreasonable” profit being made, there’s other companies/sectors that the government needs to “reign in” first.

And another point… much of that profit from the drug companies is reinvested into R&D. Smaller profit margins = less R&D.