Shortages create higher prices...Take a look at the earnings for some of the Pharm companies. My problem with them is that they likely write off HUGE phoney amounts for research...again and again and again....
If there were a true free market in pharmaceuticals, there would be no shortages. Government interference through regulations and other means is at the root of the problem. No business can create shortages or monopolies without government collaboration. This is why big business and big government are such great buddies, contrary to what libs say. They feed off each other and we are the ones who suffer for it.
“Take a look at the earnings for some of the Pharm companies. My problem with them is that they likely write off HUGE phoney amounts for research”
If they could make even more money providing an adequate supply don’t you think they would?
The problem is that they can’t make more money providing more drugs, so they don’t do it. Why should they?
They are not charities. Medicare/Medicaid and other payers expect them to provide drugs at a price they do not wish to provide them.
If you do not like this, pay them, and the problem will go away.
Higher prices then should stimulate increased production and eliminate shortages, if the market weren't restrained [think government price fixing via Medicare and Medicaid]
They likely write off HUGE phoney amounts for research...again and again and again....
Unless you think they're engaging in tax fraud, they're actually spending that much for research [Where do you think new drugs come from? Do you have any idea how expensive it is to even get one new drug past the regulators and to market? The answer is hundreds of millions per drug]
Research can be incredibly expensive.
I recently was involved in the purchase of a scanner that was nearly $150,000. And that price doesn't even come close to the cost of some microscopes or other equipment. Supplies can be quite expensive. Synthesizing new drugs for testing can be time-consuming, and the failure rate is quite high--out of hundreds, maybe only a handful meet the requirements to move to the next level of testing.
Training and paying researchers also is not cheap, although it is probably less costly than some other parts of the process.
R&D of a single drug brought to market can run around a billion dollars. The companies do need some guarantee of being able to recoup that cost, or they have no incentive to develop new drugs.