1837
Insulin (mander.xyz)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 40 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Soo why sell the patent for $1 and have it be potentially exploited when you could hold onto it and licence use for free?

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  • [–] 61 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    IIRC the insulin being sold now is manufactured differently and the patents are completely different anyway

    But overall your point is good

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  • [–] 35 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    It is different, but it's still incredibly cheap to make, $4 a vial, so it costing in the hundreds is just antihuman...

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  • [–] 32 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    It's not anti human, the rest of us get it just fine. It's specifically anti-american

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago

    This is a great way of phrasing things.

    Services that are necessary for life (like healthcare)...if other countries have figured out how to make it affordable/free (at point of use), any person or industry that tries to extract profit out of it is literally anti-American.

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  • [–] 13 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    The insulin produced now has benefited from advances in technology just like most things. The fast acting insulin is predictable and works in 45 minutes to an hour and a half. The original insulin took hours and wasn't nearly as predictable or stable. Testing/monitoring technology has seen even more significant advances.

    I owe Banting and his colleagues my life, but it is different. That's not to say that the continued well being of the public should be profitable and exclusive.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    I mean insulin is about 10x more expensive in the USA compared to other Western countries. It's cheaper still in lower income countries. Many European countries also have a price ceiling for medication, so your monthly cost for life-saving drugs is capped.

    I don't know exactly why a manufacturer doesn't set up production for much cheaper generics in the USA, but for whatever reason Americans are getting price gouged like Satan doesn't believe in tomorrow.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Whatever reason? Simple reason: legal to maximize profits over people's misfortunes.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    To be fair, most Americans agree with the capitalist first approach right up until it affects them individually. If they were willing to help each other instead of believing that anyone other than themself is a freeloader and lazy, they would have the support that other countries take for granted.

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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago

    It was sold to a Canadian public university to manage the patent for public good.

    They have, everywhere else in the world basically, insulin costs pennies.

    In America, they have been able to patent certain formulations and delivery methods, and they keep making marginal modifications to string the patents out to keep Americans locked in to absurd insulin prices.

    Was that the answer you thought it was going to be?

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