Expropriate the Cynical Price Gouging Pharmaceutical Cartel

by Gary Porter - As the Trudeau government readies to develop a formulary (list) of drugs to be covered for Canadians in the new pharmacare program, assuming  Pierre Pollievre  isn’t elected in the next federal election,  a major concern will be the cost of the drugs. This does not appear to be a concern when it comes to the military. The recent announcement that Canada is spending 8 billion immediately  and 73 billion over the next 10 years to meet our “commitments ” to NATO prove the point. NATO is an American led alliance of US domination, aggression and war, far more important to the Canadian ruling class than the health of Canadians

The drug cartel is in private hands and they wring the last nickel of profit  out of suffering. The very idea of letting private profit gougers run the pharmaceuticals business is insane of you think about it.. Here’s one example of many.

Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic could be manufactured for less than $5 a month, a recent study suggests. The U.S. list price of this injectable drug is close to $1,000 a month, although people with insurance may pay much less.

The study, which was published Mar. 27 in JAMA Network OpenTrusted Source, highlights the dramatic markup by manufacturers on GLP-1 receptor agonists and other newer diabetes medications, as well as insulin pens.

The results suggest that these drugs “can likely be manufactured for prices far below current prices, enabling wider access,” researchers from Yale University, King’s College Hospital in London and the non-profit Doctors Without Borders concluded.

GLP-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1s, are a class of drugs used to treat diabetes and for chronic weight management. They include Novo’s Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly’s dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Many insurance plans cover these medications when prescribed for diabetes, but the high prices have led to some insurers dropping them from their plans when used solely for weight loss.

In the study, researchers used data on the costs of ingredients, packaging, logistics and taxes to estimate the lowest potential prices at which companies could still make a profit on several diabetes medications.

They concluded that drug companies could sell GLP-1s such as Ozempic for $0.89 to $4.73 a month — depending on the production volume — and still make a profit.

In contrast, the lowest market prices across the world for Ozempic ranged from $38.21 to $353.74 for a month’s supply, researchers found. The list price for Ozempic in the U.S., which may not be what people actually pay out of pocket, is $935.77 a month.

Researchers also found that a single pre-filled NPH insulin pen could be sold at a profit for $0.94 to $5.90. Around the world, the lowest market prices ranged from $2.00 to $90.69.

Similarly, a long-acting pre-filled insulin glargine pen could be sold at a profit for $1.30 to $6.57. The lowest market prices around the world ranged from $2.98 to $28.41.

Mariana Socal, MD, PhD, associate scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the findings of the new study are not surprising.

“It has long been recognized that the cost of production [of medications] pales in comparison to the prices that are charged when these drugs actually come to market,” she told Healthiest.

Demand for GLP-1s continues to increase, which has led to ongoing shortages in the U.S. and more concerning access issues in other parts of the world.

“These new drugs are an absolute game changer for people living with diabetes, but are being kept out of the hands of hundreds of millions of people who need them in low- and middle-income countries,” Christa Cepuch, pharmacist coordinator at MSF’s Access Campaign, said in a release.

“Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk can in no way supply the world with the amount of these medicines needed to meet global demand, so they must immediately relinquish their stranglehold and allow them to be produced by more manufacturers around the world,” she said.

In an emailed statement, Novo Nordisk declined to disclose its costs for the production of Ozempic, but noted that last year it spent almost $5 billion on research and development. It is also spending billions more in acquisitions meant to boost the supply of GLP-1s, the company said.

Onisis Stefas, PharmD, chief executive officer of VIVO Health, Northwell Health’s outpatient pharmacy network, said he understands the need of drug makers to price their products to cover their overall research and development costs, including the costs for drugs that never make it to market.

However, “I still think that, whether globally or in the U.S., we need to find a way to get patients access to these newer agents,” he told Healthline.

“If you’re a diabetic, and you can’t get access to insulin or other medications, you’re going to have negative outcomes,” he said. “Sometimes this results in medical expenses far higher than the cost of the medications themselves.”

So what is the solution?  If the drug company is in Canada,  it should be  expropriated and run by the state under workers control. If it is situated beyond Canada’s borders,  their patents should not be recognized and their products made in Canada , again under workers control. Let’s take these products out of the hands of the cynical private price gougers and into the hands of the working people  who need them.