[tertius]

> Almost got it right: Drugs elsewhere are cheaper and largely subsidized by USA citizens.

* Correction, by U.S. government (through law).

> Those drugs cost a fortune to make and the companies make their money in USA.

Yes R&D is expensive, but pharma is extremely profitable. Here in the U.S. and abroad.

[tryingagainbro]

The difference in pricing is STAGGERING. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/New-Hepatitis-C-dru...

The blockbuster hepatitis C drug will cost about $900 (around Rs 54,000) in India for a 12-week course of treatment. That would be a fraction of the $84,000 (over Rs 50 lakh) price tag for the same treatment in US.

I'm sure that they wouldn't be that profitable if USA paid $900 for that drug, especially the first few years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/business/sales-of-sovaldi... 140,000 patients in USA and going to 250,000

[tertius]

Drugs are cheapest in India. Let's normalize. I.e. far end of the pricing bell curve.

But the answer is still, yes, there is profitability. Just not as much as with the hyper inflated prices in the US.

In short: Does the extreme cost for drugs in the US cause groundbreaking research to benefit the whole world?

No, same results could be had with way less profit. Money to fund moonshot research is still important though.

[pkaye]

Given the lower labor costs and people consider drugs to be so profitable, I don't know why other countries don't do as much research and drug development. Just a few countries carry the lion share of this effort.

[refurb]

That would be my response. If someone else can improve R&D and lower the cost of drugs, they are more than welcome to. Interestingly, I haven't seen any takers.

[tertius]

This is constantly done... Find some new discoveries in basic science. Get finding. Develop a drug. Test and redevelop. Market. Profit.

[refurb]

Based on lowering the costs of R&D? I've yet to see it.

[tertius]

Drug development is expensive.

[refurb]

pharma is extremely profitable

That's survivorship bias. Yes, the successful pharma companies are quite profitable, but there are 10 failed companies for every successful one.

I remember reading a paper that said the overall returns for the industry are either single digit or negative.

[tertius]

This is business in general.

The big ones buy up the small generic producers and single new drug companies and get slightly bigger.

The ones who can't pass trials fail. That's business, especially in R&D.