He's Baaaaaaaaaaack !! Ralph Nader: Big Pharma is crony capitalism out of control

[Rhinodawg]

Two recent news items about the voracious drug industry should call for a supine Congress to arouse itself and initiate investigations about the pay-or-die drug prices that are far too common.

The first item — a page one story in The New York Times — was about the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation, which 15 years ago invested $150 million in the biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals to develop a drug for this serious lung disease. On Nov. 19, the foundation reported a return of $3.3 billion from that investment. Kalydeco, the drug developed with that investment, is taken daily by CF patients (who can afford it) and is priced at $300,000 a year per patient. Who can pay that price?

The second news release came from the drug industry-funded Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. The center’s Joseph DiMasi asserts that the cost of developing a new prescription medicine is about $2.558 billion, significantly higher than the previous estimate of $802 million that the center claimed in 2003.

The drug industry promoters use this ludicrous figure to justify sky-high drug prices for consumers. Unfortunately, the criticism of this inflated number does not receive adequate media attention.

http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/ralph-nader-big-pharma-is-crony-capitalism-out-of-control/article_5b51d23f-f6a6-5438-b4fc-41cbccb48ed2.html

[Rhinodawg]

1. I think he's going to run.

but who knows.

[djean111]

2. Big Pharma is crony capitalism out of control - can't argue with that!

No matter who says it.

[gordianot]

3. The real shame is his Presidential forays and personal hyperbole have rendered him irrelevant.

Ralph Nader elicits in me a gag reflex when I see or hear (which is never) his name.

[hrmjustin]

5. +1

[wandy]

11. Even a spoiler can be right once in a while. A spoiler is still a spoiler. nt

[arcane1]

4. And he's right, too n/t

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. We should nationalize the pharmaceutical industry. What a bunch of pirates.

In related news, the makers of the opiate overdose reversal drug naloxone are radically increasing the price of this life-saver, just as states pass laws mandating that the drug be carried by cops and EMS personnel.

[abelenkpe]

7. K&R

Pharmaceutical companies need to be broken up along with big banks, big financial institutions and big media.

[Little Star]

8. Just go away Ralph. n/t

[Rhinodawg]

9. At one time,

he was the conscience of the Progressives.

[RobertEarl]

13. Well this is all pretty weird

The election of 2000 was stolen by crooked republicans.

And who gets the blame? A progressive. Ralph Nader. Not Bush, or the criminal SCOTUS, but a progressive.

That's some weird shit right there, dude.

[olddots]

10. Ralphy did save alot of lives before he made people waste votes

He is very good at what he started out to do = protect consumers too bad he went alittle nutso watching corporations destroy a country .

[4Q2u2]

12. Who is back?

I could not tell if it was Captain Obvious or Ralf Nader. Or is that redundant.