Draconian Pharma

Draconian Pharma

   I live by the grace of a drug marketed by AbbVie Pharmaceuticals.  You and your children will die by their hands.  The vehicle that will be your demise is called greed.  It is the driving force behind many other drug companies as well.  Here is my and your story.  I told the story in a previous blog, Golden Goose Economics, but I employed satire to tell the tale.  Satire is a language not understood by some, so here is the threat without satire.

   In 2009 my annual blood tests showed that I had CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia) a deadly malignancy.  It remained in the “wait and see” stage until in 2019 the lymphocyte count went up to stage three.  At that time my oncologist recommended a drug called Imbruvica (the generic name is Ibrutinib) at a cost to Medicare of 195 thousand dollars/year/patient.  It required that I pay a three thousand dollar a month copay.  I don’t have three thousand dollars a month over and above my living costs.  So, I turned the offer to extend my life down.

   Soon after my turn down I received a call from a foundation ready to pay my required copay.  The young woman asked me what my annual income was, and then said that I had qualified for the assistance.  I have applied for many financial programs in my life and have never had one approved without income verification.  This fact prompted me to ask, “Who funds this foundation?”  She confirmed my suspicions by answering, “The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.”  I understood that the Pharmaceutical (AbbVie) had priced the drug so high that the bulk of the potential patients could not afford the copay.  And, they would receive their donation back from the foundation when the copay was returned.  This draconian plan was probably engineered by Richard Gonzales, CEO of AbbVie.  The CLL organization estimates that there are presently, approximately two hundred thousand Medicare patients with CLL.  With this number of clients AbbVie would recover its investment of twenty one billion dollars for the patent rights of Ibrutinib in about a year and a half.  This is an excellent return on investment and spells out the end of Medicare.  There are other pharmaceuticals joining the program.  The financial success is no secret among them.

   Who is to blame for this egregious future ending of Medicare?  Let’s start at the bottom.  I am.  I am willing to participate in this scam so that I may live longer.  Next up, my oncologist.  They do not prescribe the drug without knowledge of the preceding events.  They could try to change it with their powerful AMA lobbyists.  But, in the short run, if they like being willfully blind, the drug offers effective patient care.  Next up, the pharmaceuticals and their lobbyists, they fully understand the game.  The CEOs like Gonzales are so infected with greed (the malignant form of self-preservation) that they are willing to sacrifice the lives of their children and their children’s children.  At the top of the corruption are your elected representatives.  They are the folks that create and enforce patent rights.  You elected them to serve the people, not the soulless wealth of the nation.

   What are patent rights?  They are designed to protect the rights of the creator of a desirable product and to reward the toil of a creator.  When Celera Pharmaceutical sold Ibrutinib to Pharmacyclics for three million dollars it was probably for a fair profit and to a company capable of logistics required to produce and distribute the product.  Then Johnson & Johnson paid Pharmacyclics for its patent rights $975 million.  Are you starting to smell a foul odor?  The next transaction has AbbVie paying $21 billion for these patent rights.  A billion is a thousand millions.  Twenty-one of them is going to result in a very high price for a lifesaving drug.  Are we dealing with greed now or protecting an inventor?  The purpose of any law is a shield for those in need of protection, not a sword for the greedy.  A well written patent law would protect the creator and perhaps a distributer with the purchase at perhaps 15% over the book value of the company, but no protection to a third purchaser.  This would be fair and effective.  With the large dollar influence on those who govern us, fair and effective is rare.

Cheers, Old Buz                   December 4^th, 2023

Remember:

“One cannot fool all of the people all of the time … and that is why we have two political parties.” - Anon                                                                                                                                             

Golden Goose Economics

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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Cheers, Old Buz

Born an agnostic and with God’s help will remain one.

*Source: Wikipedia > ibrutinib > history