Hi A.L,

Please read this – it’s informed, balanced and passed peer review:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/liv.13157/full

Pharma spends 1.3% of gross revenues on R&D and 25% on marketing. They are laying waste to the public purse (both government and insurance) while not delivering what we, as in the world, need ie more new novel antibiotics. I think I use the words “strangling the goose that lays the golden eggs” and like it or not, it is totally accurate.

At the moment health care costs are increasing by 7% pa in most of the western world. GDP growth is 3%. That 4% annual gap means healtcare budgets DOUBLE – in real terms – within 20 years (they will on the current trajectory quadruple in actual dollar value).

In Australia healthcare costs 9.8% of GDP. Double that and we get to 20% (what it currently is in the USA) but that 9.8% is also 28.6% of consolidated revenue – so double that and over 1/2 our budget is going on health which leads to what do we give up to fund it? Education, roads, ports, prisons? The money has to come from somewhere.

And what is the major line item in the health budget? Pharma.

Sofosbuvir existed for 10 years before Gilead bought it as a nearly done deal, and would have hit the market regardless, at a lower price and with the direct result that some of the 500,000 HCV patients who died last year (about the same number that got treated) would be alive and well, enjoying time with family and friends.

Gilead are one of the worst examples, but far from the only one. I also recommend this short letter to you, and the 2 minute video from Bloomberg at the end:

http://fixhepc.com/blog/item/30-a-new-plan-for-pbs-pricing-negotiations.html

Do you want know the worst thing about SVR?

Chances are you’re going to live long enough to see the western health system implode under the weight of the sort of greed that would make even Gordon Gecko blush.