ATROCIOUS big pharma price gouging of insulin:
This crying mother can’t afford the $1000 for her son’s insulin.
📌yet, it only costs pharma $5 to produce.
📌Insulin was invented 100 years ago by Fred Banting—who donated patent for $1 to make it free for all.
Let that sink in.
2) Insulin is one of the most disgusting cases of price gouging ever.
America has long taken a free market approach to pharmaceuticals.
Drug companies haggle separately over drug prices with a variety of private insurers across the
3) “Meanwhile, Medicare, the government health program for those over age 65 — it’s also the nation’s largest buyer of drugs—is barred from negotiating drug prices. That gives pharma more leverage, and it leads to the kind of price surges of EpiPens, opioid antidotes, & insulin.”
4) In 2018:
Johnson & Johnson CEO made $30M
Pfizer CEO made $28M
Merck CEO made $18M
Eli Lilly CEO made $16M
Gilead CEO made $16M
Meanwhile:
📌Americans spent $535B on Rx drugs
📌1/4 of diabetics rationed insulin to survive
📌500K Americans went bankrupt from medical bills.
5) What’s the right price patients should pay for medications? ZERO dollars, because no copay ==> more patients get their medicine ==> saves lives and saves money. Copays decrease adherence, and copays hurt patients who actually need them.
