Golden Goose
Economics, in this rant referred to as GGE, is fast becoming the prominent
economic theory in The United States of America. It would best be described as an unsustainable
business theory, which only considers short term profits, not long term
results. I am presently a
casualty/participant in GGE. That is, I
have sold my soul in order to live.
.
I will give
you a short back story. In 2009 I was
diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). It stayed in the “wait and watch” stage, with
little or no symptoms, until late 2018, when the White Nationalist Lymphocytes
decided to kill off the other blood cells, both red and the other whites. This was a good short term decision for the
lymphocytes, for they did greatly multiply their number, but at the long term
cost of killing their host (me). Leukemia will do that to you.
.
Along comes
the cavalry, sort of. Abbvie (a GGE
company) sells a drug known as Ibrutinib for twelve to fourteen thousand
dollars a month. The insurance co-pay on
a drug of this price is about three thousand dollars a month. I am using it. Why so high?
Stay with me. We need some
history here. Celera researched and
developed the drug. They sold it a
couple of years later to Pharmacyclics for three million dollars*. A nice profit and well deserved for the
R&D given. In 2011 Johnson &
Johnson, after Phase II FDA trials, bought into the GGE program for $975
million dollars*. Most recently Abbvie
saw that J&J and Pharmacyclics had a good GGE program going and in March of
2015 paid them 21 Billion Dollars*
for the scam. Why do I call it a GGE
scam? Because, the developer, Celera,
could have sold the drug for $50 a month and made money.
.
Now you are
asking yourself, “How can this retired guy, a blog writer, living on Social
Security pay a three thousand dollar, a month, co-pay?” I can’t.
A foundation pays the co-pay. After
I turn down the program, the drug supplier calls me and asks, “What is your
monthly income?” I answer the question,
with no verification required, and I am told that you qualify for the
foundation’s program. I have no co-pay. This seemed both easy and fishy to me, so I
asked the obvious question, “Who finances this foundation?” Answer given, “The Pharmaceutical Companies.” How would the CEO or CFO or a drug company analyze
this transaction? Price a lifesaving
drug so that less than 10% of the market can afford it. Fund a foundation to pay the co-pay. Get the co-pay back when you sell the drug,
plus get the benefit of a “charitable” contribution. Now your market is 100% of CLL patients. Who pays for this GGE scam? Medicare.
Who pays for Medicare? You, the
tax payer, pays for Medicare. How long
can Medicare pay for this program? Great
question. Put it to a Republican
Congress.
.
So, I sold
my soul to the Devil for the possibility for a slightly longer life. This is the mother chimp philosophy. I, long ago, read about an experiment
involving a mother chimp and her baby being placed in a large water tank. As the water in the tank slowly rose, the
mother held her baby high. When the
level rose over her nose, she stood on the baby. Before this incident, she had hoped to be
reincarnated as a Trump Train Rider or a Big Pharma CEO (the lowest form of
human), but when it was her life, she stood on her baby. She will be lucky to be reborn as a
chimp. Before I joined the Golden Goose Economics
scam, I had hoped to be reincarnated as an ACLU Lawyer. By joining the Big Pharma program, I think it
will be chimp in the next life for me. I
will be demoted from a blog writing, retired motorcycle dealer. Not much of a step down, but a step down just
the same.
.
Cheers, Old
Buz
Born an
agnostic and with God’s help will remain one.
*Source: Wikipedia > ibrutinib > history
*Source: Wikipedia > ibrutinib > history
