Widgets and do-hickies poll

[Epidemic]

I found my other post interesting so I am now going to try to expand on what is in my head here.

[Knothead]

(The ever-inquisitive mind of Epidemic strikes again...)

Now I'm curious, what didja make? Huh? What? What??

Oh, okay. I say if it's a necessity, then charge a decent profit, enough to keep the enterprise going.

If it's NOT a necessity, charge 'em through the roof, if you can.

Gonna tell me now? Huh? Huh??

[Epidemic]

Nope much to my dismay I have invented nothing which is not owned by my employer.

But with hurricane season fast approaching I also wonder about things like chain saws/ generators... When does it become price gouging? Supply and demand laws would say that you could raise your price(not nice to profit off others misfortune butttt).

Hospitals charge 6 dollars per tab of aspirin. (that bugs me)

Drug companies charge one price for sheep cancer drug and another for humans (If you can produce it for sheep at 1$ why not humans including any other markups for product (quality control differences)

Drug companies are for profit institutions and are there to make as much money as possible. If they came up with a 100% effective cure for cancer why can't they charge what they want for it? It would be mean to gouge like that but free market would say they should.

I am toooo confused.

[Knothead]

I see no confusion at all. I think the medical establishment is just plain wrong to exploit the sick the way they do.

Sure, their hard work should be rewarded, but if those guys keep on the way they are, the doktors are going to own all the money there is.

There is a sensible and kinder ground that can and should be held.

Now if the widget is just an unnecessary goof, why, charge whatever you like.

If you're charging too much, well....you'll know.

[Epidemic]

I am not able to get a grasp of how much one should charge.

If you consider the risk involved with failure of 5 - 10 - 20 drugs a year and one winner. One must be paid enough to undertake the risk of R&D. If for nothing more than to insure future ability to develop drugs. The winner drug pays for new R&D risk.

R&D	30,000,000
Annual sick	30,000
payback period	5
	
Break even payback	200
	
dosing period	365
doses per day	3
production cost per dose	1
Annual cost per year	32,850,000
	
annual cost per patient	1,095
	
Total break even cost per patient	1,295
	
30 drugs which did not pass R&D Phase	$$$Risk$$$
Payback incentive to produce new  drug	$$$

[ShawnD1]

Utilities like gas, power, water should ALWAYS be regulated. Every time that deregulation of these happens, prices just skyrocket.

I don't know what drugs should be regulated at but I know it should be a lot lower than it is now. Canada has way cheaper drugs and the government doesn't finance any of it. We're totaly getting screwed over by drug companies here.

[Epidemic]

Does canada have to jump through the same regulatory hoops as american drug companies. Do canadian drug companies experience the same kind of lawsuits...?

Do the canadian drug companies R&D as many drugs which are stopped by their regulatory body? Do they produce as many new drugs per year as american drug companies? In otherwords do the risk failure as many times as american drug companies? I don't know myself.


Utilities like gas, power I agree to some extent in todays world.

But I am not sure that partial de-regulation of what was created from severe regulation is possible. California separated the infrastructure from the power plants. Then the billing was done through the power plant portion. The company which owned the distribution system increased prices and they would not allow Powerplant to raise theirs. all in all it was screwed up.

[MD1032]

Yes on both, much more on neccessary items. However, it doesn't mean that all non-neccessity items should automatically triple in price! Also, how can you DEFINE some items as neccessary or non-neccessary. Think of a blender. You need it to prepare a lot of foods, but you don't NEED it because you can use a frying pan to cook other things.

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by Epidemic
Does canada have to jump through the same regulatory hoops as american drug companies. Do canadian drug companies experience the same kind of lawsuits...?

Do the canadian drug companies R&D as many drugs which are stopped by their regulatory body? Do they produce as many new drugs per year as american drug companies? In otherwords do the risk failure as many times as american drug companies?

1. Yes, Canada has to jump through regulatory hoops
2. Yes, lawsuits come from Canadians too (not nearly as often though)
3. There are no Canadian companies, just American companies that sell in Canada
4. Same risk of failure because it's the same companies.

It's not like it's Canadian companies giving a good deal, it's American companies giving Canadians a good deal. Canadians get the same exact drugs from the same companies as us but they pay like less than half what we pay.

I want to hit somebody everytime I think about it