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Insulin giant pulls medicine from Greece over price cut
BBC ^ | May 29, 2010 | Malcolm Brabant

Posted on 05/29/2010 8:34:04 AM PDT by lump in the melting pot

The world's leading supplier of the anti-diabetes drug insulin is withdrawing a state-of-the-art medication from Greece. Novo Nordisk, a Danish company, objects to a government decree ordering a 25% price cut in all medicines.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: greece; healthcare; socializedmedicine
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Government health "care", coming your way. Greece really is the canary in our coalmine...
1 posted on 05/29/2010 8:34:04 AM PDT by lump in the melting pot
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To: lump in the melting pot

Particularly ironic is that it is a Danish company.


2 posted on 05/29/2010 8:36:07 AM PDT by markomalley (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
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To: lump in the melting pot

No insulin for you!

3 posted on 05/29/2010 8:37:47 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (we shall overcome a generation of affirmative action.)
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To: lump in the melting pot

I’d hate to be a juvi diabetic in Greece!


4 posted on 05/29/2010 8:39:22 AM PDT by struggle ((The struggle continues))
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To: lump in the melting pot

It’s an interesting episode. You fix your economy....by ordering price cuts. Importers react...and say adios to selling on the economy. So, there are fifty thousand Greeks who use this insulin from the company in question.

You will have to buy it....via another country and I’m guessing you will pay twenty-percent mark-up to make this work, and an import tax (which Greece is famous for) will be involved.

So guess what...black market insulin will become popular...as fishermen run up to Italy...pick up a pallet of this stuff on ice...and come back to sell off the pier.

What a country!


5 posted on 05/29/2010 8:40:12 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: lump in the melting pot

Just one of those socialistic benefits coming our way soon...


6 posted on 05/29/2010 8:43:30 AM PDT by Wpin ("I Have Sworn Upon the Altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny...")
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To: lump in the melting pot

Cute to watch - I guess there are limits in how low government can command pricing.


7 posted on 05/29/2010 8:44:38 AM PDT by BobL
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To: lump in the melting pot
Are you better off with bread you can buy at $5/loaf or with bread you can't find at $1/loaf.

It amazes me still that governments thing they can reduce costs with decrees like King Canute facing the tides. At least Canute had the good sense to do it to show his limits to his people.

Governments can decree price roll-backs but they cannot force supply into existence.

8 posted on 05/29/2010 8:50:24 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Obama. Chauncey Gardiner without the homburg.)
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To: lump in the melting pot

Novo Nordisk shrugged...


9 posted on 05/29/2010 8:53:33 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: lump in the melting pot

“anti-diabetes drug insulin”?????????

Heh?


10 posted on 05/29/2010 8:53:53 AM PDT by pillut48 ("Calling ILLEGAL aliens "immigrants" is like calling shoplifters 'customers'!"-UCFRoadWarrior ><>)
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To: pepsionice

Unintended consequences...what a bitch!


11 posted on 05/29/2010 8:54:38 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: lump in the melting pot
...a government decree ordering a 25% price cut in all medicines.

They government should have decreed that blood sugar shall be lower, and then they wouldn't need the insulin.

12 posted on 05/29/2010 8:57:47 AM PDT by Plutarch
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To: lump in the melting pot
Pavlos Panayotacos, whose 10-year-old daughter Nephele has diabetes, has written to Novo Nordisk's chairman to criticise the move.

"As an economist I realise the importance of making a profit, but healthcare is more than just the bottom line," he wrote.

There is nothing as infuriating as a bad economist. As an economist myself who also takes insulin four times a day, I'm aware that the only reason insulin is always there in the drugstores when I need it because someone is paying attention to "the bottom line."

13 posted on 05/29/2010 8:58:27 AM PDT by untenured
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To: lump in the melting pot

Why those eeeevil, greeeedy CAPITALISTS!!! You mean they actually want to make a PROFIT?? Now that seems pretty damned unreasonable to me!!!


14 posted on 05/29/2010 9:02:36 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
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To: untenured

Thanks for your perspective. I can’t handle those who think everyone ELSE should give up his/her profit/incentive to satisfy their needs/wants.


15 posted on 05/29/2010 9:04:26 AM PDT by EDINVA
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To: lump in the melting pot

Coming attractions for the USA.


16 posted on 05/29/2010 9:07:24 AM PDT by AU72
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After reading the article, I’m not sure what they mean by ‘state of the art.’ It looks like they are pulling their pen device (which I use). This is a more expensive way of delivering insulin, but not the only way. The old fashioned, and cheaper, syringe and vial work fine.

Now if they are removing all of their insulin products from Greece, that’s another matter.


17 posted on 05/29/2010 9:11:18 AM PDT by radiohead (Buy ammo, get your kids out of government schools, pray for the Republic.)
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To: lump in the melting pot
Greece really is the canary in our coalmine...

Yep. Spain and Portugal, too......

18 posted on 05/29/2010 9:18:12 AM PDT by Thermalseeker (Stop the insanity - Flush Congress!)
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To: radiohead

The way I read the article, I believe you are correct - nobody should die in Greece from lack of insulin, they will just be inconvenienced with the old-fashioned delivery method.


19 posted on 05/29/2010 9:22:00 AM PDT by lump in the melting pot (Communism - a social experiment which, for moral reasons, should not be performed on live humans)
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To: radiohead

In the article they say the drug company is making another product “free of charge”.

We all know it probably doesn’t work as well as the first drug, but they can’t operate at a loss.

Articles like this make you aware you just can’t deal with these people, that nothing will satisfy them. The co. can’t give away their product. They will go out of business.

When you are a hard core leftist, you don’t care that someone can’t afford it. Your entitlement is more important than anything else. This is good to keep in mind when dealing with leftists.

They will NEVER be satisfied. You can never deal out what they want, because they don’t care about you.


20 posted on 05/29/2010 9:25:46 AM PDT by I still care (I believe in the universality of freedom -George Bush, asked if he regrets going to war.)
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