Why forgoing Covid-19 profits could undermine the whole drug industry
Speaking of pricing, an interesting facet of the coronavirus crisis has been watching critics and proponents of biopharma make the exact same point to support completely opposing ideas: Why should responding to Covid-19 be different from any other disease?
The latest example comes from Geoffrey Porges, the well-regarded SVB Leerink analyst, in a note about why Gilead Sciences deserves to profit from the Covid-19 drug remdesivir. In his argument, Porges notes major drug companies, including Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, have promised to price their future coronavirus products on a non-profit basis, a decision he calls “monopolistic and irresponsible.”
“If Covid medicines are provided at no cost, then why shouldn’t treatments for other severe diseases, for example Alzheimer’s disease or MRSA, also be provided at no profit or cost?” Porges wrote. “If the largest companies in the industry are willing to indicate that they can afford to give away their medicines and vaccines in developed markets, then that could easily affect the public perception of the industry overall — why can’t they give away medicines for other diseases, too?”
Essentially, refusing profits on Covid-19 would amount to giving the mouse a cookie that ends up unwinding a trillion-dollar industry. Porges’s words could easily have been written by biopharma’s staunches critics, whose only quibble would be the idea that that’s a bad thing.
The latest example comes from Geoffrey Porges, the well-regarded SVB Leerink analyst, in a note about why Gilead Sciences deserves to profit from the Covid-19 drug remdesivir. In his argument, Porges notes major drug companies, including Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, have promised to price their future coronavirus products on a non-profit basis, a decision he calls “monopolistic and irresponsible.”
“If Covid medicines are provided at no cost, then why shouldn’t treatments for other severe diseases, for example Alzheimer’s disease or MRSA, also be provided at no profit or cost?” Porges wrote. “If the largest companies in the industry are willing to indicate that they can afford to give away their medicines and vaccines in developed markets, then that could easily affect the public perception of the industry overall — why can’t they give away medicines for other diseases, too?”
Essentially, refusing profits on Covid-19 would amount to giving the mouse a cookie that ends up unwinding a trillion-dollar industry. Porges’s words could easily have been written by biopharma’s staunches critics, whose only quibble would be the idea that that’s a bad thing.
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