812
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
812 points (100.0% liked)
Uplifting News
16876 readers
5 users here now
Welcome to /c/UpliftingNews (rules), a dedicated space where optimism and positivity converge to bring you the most heartening and inspiring stories from around the world. We strive to curate and share content that lights up your day, invigorates your spirit, and inspires you to spread positivity in your own way. This is a sanctuary for those seeking a break from the incessant negativity and rage (e.g. schadenfreude) often found in today's news cycle. From acts of everyday kindness to large-scale philanthropic efforts, from individual achievements to community triumphs, we bring you news—in text form or otherwise—that gives hope, fosters empathy, and strengthens the belief in humanity's capacity for good, from a quality outlet that does not publish bad copies of copies of copies.
Here in /c/UpliftingNews, we uphold the values of respect, empathy, and inclusivity, fostering a supportive and vibrant community. We encourage you to share your positive news, comment, engage in uplifting conversations, and find solace in the goodness that exists around us. We are more than a news-sharing platform; we are a community built on the power of positivity and the collective desire for a more hopeful world. Remember, your small acts of kindness can be someone else's big ray of hope. Be part of the positivity revolution; share, uplift, inspire!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
40 dollars in low income countries. 28,000 dollars in the united states. The drug is made in the united states.
WTF.
Makes you wonder if Trump has a point.
But thanks to RFK and Trump, there will be no more drugs like this in the future. Gilead did the trials, but 95% of the effort behind this was NIH funded. We can't even guess how many game changing drugs have been cut in 2025.
As always Trump completely misunderstands the situation. Yes there’s a point in how exepnsive drugs are in the us, especially relative to other countries. But whether it’s manufactured in the us has almost nothing to do with it.
The problem is recovering all the development costs from American patients, and more recently just charging what they think the market will bear. We have to fix the complex maze of healthcare and all the levels of profiteering, we have to fix how development costs can be recovered and most of all we need to fix charging what the market will bear. Has everyone already forgotten the outcry over insulin a few years ago. A ceo who should be in jail decided to start charging ten or twenty times the cost, because he could, because us patients are a captive market. Then got away with saying “some of you can use these coupons….”. There’s definitely a point where exploitive business practices have crossed the line and should be considered criminal acts
Drug development in trials costs $120-200M. Upon approval, Pharma expects $15B +.
They have proven they would rather a drug not save lives than offer lower profits.
if a product can be sold at 10 times the profit to one fifth the people only an idiot would not rase prices ten fold
A hell of a lot of that is funded by tax payers. They don't need to recoup money, they need to give the tax payers what they already paid for.
speaking as a indian - the reason that this is possible because we kinda ignore medical patents and formulations. (using kinda because i do not know the exact wording in law and the cooldown period).
It should also tell you about the cost of ingredients and manufacturing vs the costs you pay for "rnd for big companies" (who often build upon work done by universities which often are run by public fundiing)
Pharmaceutical companies used to do basic research until the 90s. At this point, they are just banks who buy biotechs spun out from NIH research.
Now that NIH is gone, the industry will atrophy within a decade. There will be no new drugs.
Those companies spend more on advertising than RND
15 years on patent drugs.
I figured this would come up but you've gotta remember that drugs are expensive as hell to develop. And it just received US approval in June so it's not like they have been sitting on this making money for years.
The cost of drug development is vastly overstated as an excuse. The reality is $100-200M, but pharma expects $14B++ in returns. Little of that goes back into basic research.
The front end of costs was spent by the NIH, and after that was ended, Pharma is not taking up the slack. It's not sustainable and pharma will die in a decade.
Just because development of a single drug costs not that much does not mean you don't need to pay for failed drugs too. If many drugs die during trials someone gotta pay for that. Profitability is a better indicator for greed.
Gilead’s own words show they aren’t hurting in the least for profits. It’s definitely greed.
You must look at the whole sector as failures sink companies but yes.
I'd like to see some sources on those numbers, I couldn't find any of that when I searched.
ok so US citizens are supposed to subsidize the cost of the drug for the entire planet???
No they arent, it's pretty imbalanced, but effectively that is what's happening.
I believe this would be known as an "understatement"