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[–] 210 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Meanwhile, 10 euros per vial here in Europe. At least his original plan for widespread and easy availability has partially succeeded.

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

    In brazil 36 reais (about 6 euro). The US is a joke. (And im 99% sure you can also get it for free if you use the public health network)

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  • [–] 47 points 9 months ago

    I have mental health disabilities in the USA and my meds are at zero cost because I literally have had absolute zero income for the past 5 years.

    You wouldn't believe how much those mood stabilizer/antidepressant cocktails stack up proportionally when I was able to scrape by on $15 an hour.

    The system set me up to fail with how shitty it is, if healthcare wasn't crap I could be contributing to society without crippling myself.

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    [–] 145 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 child)

    Canadians: invented drug and patent it freely

    Americans: Finds way to kill the most people possible while making the most amount of money

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  • [–] 122 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    I’m not diabetic and the situation with insulin fills me with a white hot rage.

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    [–] 99 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    If you talk about killing the few people like these that are the root cause of all these problems, you're a terrorist. You go to jail

    These people actually kill people by the thousands, millions, and we call them smart CEO's and celebrate them 🥂

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    [–] 73 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (19 children)

    I wonder if all the sane Americans did a mass exodus to Canada, Europe, UK, Australia etc, what effect that would have

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

    A lot of us would need financial sponsorship. So there'd be a literal financial drain on those economies.

    I still would like to sign up.

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  • [–] 68 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    Not if you stayed, then it’s an investment. Money doesn’t just disappear when goes to poor people, they use it to buy things like food and stuff. It would only be a financial drain if you were sending that money back home.

    The North American mind cannot comprehend the benefits of supporting the poor.

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    [–] 70 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Remember Remember the 4th of December

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

    Making an AI meme of Luigi as a Saint is one thing.

    Making a painting and having it casually displayed in your room is a whole other level.

    Also, I can't believe it's already been a year.

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  • [–] 63 points 9 months ago (11 children)

    California is contracting its own insulin supply and it'll be available for $11 a pen starting Jan 1, 2026. I know not every state can or are willing to do this but just throwing out some examples and hopefully optimism to somehow fight the American decline from within it. We're in a unique position as our state economy is larger than most countries but I am hopeful we will throw our weight around to counter the bs. https://www.chhs.ca.gov/blog/2025/10/17/governor-newsom-announces-affordable-calrx-insulin-11-a-pen-will-soon-be-available-for-purchase/

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    [+] 56 points 9 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)
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    [–] 52 points 9 months ago (26 children)

    Capitalism is economic terrorism.

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    [–] 46 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    I genuinely think that in some third world countries, as part of the middle class, you can have a better life than in the USA.

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

    Something I've noticed is when untraveled people in the USA try to contextualize themselves with other countries they pick the worst examples they can think of. Favelas in Brazil or slums in South Africa for example. We do this to the point where our entire conception of countries (or in the case of Africa, continents) is the worst imagery we can think of. I think they genuinely don't believe that, for all their troubles India, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, etc also have smartphones and big buildings and libraries and universities and laboratories, and educated people living decent lives.

    They also can't see how the overcrowded jails full of pretrial prisoners, the barefoot children carrying buckets for water in Appalachia, the rundown schools full of illiterate kids, the impunity of rich private interests, the corrupt sheriffs and judges, and on and on, puts us in the company of the "third world countries". Yes we have nice places too, but SO DO THEY. A broken society in the 21st century isn't people living in mud huts, it's children shitting in the street next to a glass skyscraper with LEED Platinum certification.

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    [–] 46 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    The drug I have to take to live costs anywhere from $4,000-$5,500/month without insurance. This is actually cheaper than what I was on before—a cocktail of 4 drugs, some taken multiple times a day, that was almost $10,000/month. I’m lucky(?) that there are a ton of programs that together cover the cost for me. Unfortunately there are hoops I have to jump through every month to continue qualifying for the assistance and have to regularly take time off from work to make the appointments. I’ve lost jobs due to this, but am currently working a position where my manager is happy enough with my work to fudge time cards to help me out.

    I hate this country.

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    [–] 42 points 9 months ago (17 children)

    Naive question from a european: Aren't there companies on the market who can offer a cheaper price and therefore beat greedy competitors?

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  • [–] 100 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

    the problem is that there is natural (as in, unmodified) cheap generic insulin available, it's just that it sucks compared to everything else. you see, insulin is a peptide that is supposed to appear, do some signalling, then disappear and unmodified insulin copies this thing exactly. the problem is, most of the time when peptide is supposed to work as a pharmaceutical, you don't want to do that, you'd like insulin to last longer than usual, which means changes to it that make breakdown slower, or adding something that makes it stick to albumin, which has similar effect because it hides insulin somewhere enzymes can't reach it and also it makes it start acting slower. this means less frequent dosing and less changes in insulin activity over time. there are also other insulins that start acting faster than natural, and this is also due to a couple of modifications in its structure

    for another example, ozempic was not the first drug in its class, it's also a modified peptide, and it can be injected s.c. once a week, compared to previous iteration (liraglutide) that requires daily injections. if natural peptide is injected i.m. instead, its halflife is half an hour, and in serum it's only two minutes (it gets released a bit slower than it is metabolized)

    manufacturing costs are about the same for any variant, most of it is in purification. patents for a couple of these have expired anyway by now, but if manufacturing is limited then price can be set arbitrarily high (see daraprim)

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  • [–] 20 points 9 months ago

    Correct, but when it's already been established that people will pay those prices, they keep them high. So instead of going from $800 to $5 out of the goodness of their hearts, they go from $800 to $650 (number made up) to get more business but still make massive profits.

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    [–] 40 points 9 months ago (40 children)

    Americans suffer from Stockholm syndrome

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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* (6 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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    [–] 38 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Welcome to USA, I guess.

    In other countries, you could probably completely fill a fridge with insulin for $800.

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  • [–] 38 points 9 months ago (6 children)
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    [+] 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 35 points 9 months ago (18 children)

    They sold the patent to the University of Toronto, so they didn't exactly sell it to a for-profit patent troll.

    But also, that was in 1923, so the patent has long since expired.

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  • [–] 38 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    They also don't make insulin the way that he did back then. Not justifying the price hike cause the way its made now is way cheaper than it was with the old method (which was basically grinding up animal parts to extract insulin). These fucks are just profiting off of the suffering of Americans who have literally no choice but to use their drug.

    https://youtu.be/naqbi_qVoVY

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  • [–] 27 points 9 months ago (3 children)
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    [+] 24 points 9 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)
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    [–] 23 points 9 months ago

    Invented by a Canadian, exploited by an American.

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