Jims journey on Skilarence

[Caroline]

I could be wrong but I took the comment that it's all about cost to simply mean drugs that make the most money are prescribed over what may actually be the better (or not) treatments.  I do not think it was in reference to the cost of DMF (or any other drug actually) in any way.  And if that was the meaning, I agree.  I do think money is a huge influence.  Pharma is BIG business after all!

Well that is true. You e.g. cannot produce a DMF product, without gaining profit, and for the production, you need: scientific evidence that (your version of) the drug works, no matter all the proof that is already there. Luckily ‘you’ (pharma) pay for it ......
You need to comply to hundreds of rules.
You need to go through a long time eating official administrative process (a process that we now know that it can done in two weeks if there is a pandemic threat).
And so on and so on.
We, the government, did not make it easy or cheap to make a drug. Which in some sense is ok, it has to be as safe as possible but it raises the costs with quite a factor.
So that in a way makes the business.

Now depending on how eager and competitive the market is, you can set your price as pharma. Example is Tecfidera. It is just DMF, which also happens to work for MS. As all MS medication is expensive, the aligned the price of it with the common price of MS Medicine, and it gets paid for. As the need is there.
Skilarence is the same, more than 3 times cheaper, but not indicated for MS, so may not be used for it.... and then there is the Bill’s medicine... exactly the same..... no about prices the world has gone mad.

We created a system that makes this possible.
There are even people that have made it their jobs, to influence this system and keep it intact, lobbyists, all for the big money. And they only work on one side. There are no lobbyists that work for the people, suddenly they are then called activists.....