Comments on: Towards the Pharma-Industrial Complex? http://www.brunoandtheprofessor.com/2009/02/towards_the_pharma-industrial_complex.php Bruno and the Professor is a progressive, liberal weekly talk radio podcast covering issues from Seattle, the United States, and the World Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:48:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Matski http://www.brunoandtheprofessor.com/2009/02/towards_the_pharma-industrial_complex.php/comment-page-1#comment-81901 Matski Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:05:18 +0000 http://www.brunoandtheprofessor.com/?p=3171#comment-81901 Hahahaha ... good point. A big difference is that Big Pharma still has an international market. You wouldn't sell an MX missile to the Soviets, but you'd sell a cancer treatment to the Russians. The main reason why I could see this working is that the single payer would define the market priorities. So, potentially, you could create some kind of a "research priorities" board that would identify a hot list of diseases that needed a treatment. They'd then create an incentive package to get companies to work on those treatments. This solves a big problem in the current industry -- namely, that companies only really have an incentive to work on treatments for "mass market" afflictions ... it's how you get 3 pills for ED, but limited R&D for conditions that afflict smaller numbers of people. Hahahaha … good point.

A big difference is that Big Pharma still has an international market. You wouldn’t sell an MX missile to the Soviets, but you’d sell a cancer treatment to the Russians.

The main reason why I could see this working is that the single payer would define the market priorities. So, potentially, you could create some kind of a “research priorities” board that would identify a hot list of diseases that needed a treatment. They’d then create an incentive package to get companies to work on those treatments. This solves a big problem in the current industry — namely, that companies only really have an incentive to work on treatments for “mass market” afflictions … it’s how you get 3 pills for ED, but limited R&D for conditions that afflict smaller numbers of people.

]]> By: Bruno http://www.brunoandtheprofessor.com/2009/02/towards_the_pharma-industrial_complex.php/comment-page-1#comment-81545 Bruno Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:51:12 +0000 http://www.brunoandtheprofessor.com/?p=3171#comment-81545 very interesting. So much defense spending is driven by congressmen's desire for pork in their district. I wonder what the relative procurement competitions would be. Would congressmen with biotech research facilities in their district angle for contracts? Would the contracting process become so complex that a few companies would make it their core competency and devour everyone else? Of course, this hasn't happened in europe. but they don't have quite the appetite for government-sponsored corruption that we do. :) very interesting. So much defense spending is driven by congressmen’s desire for pork in their district. I wonder what the relative procurement competitions would be. Would congressmen with biotech research facilities in their district angle for contracts? Would the contracting process become so complex that a few companies would make it their core competency and devour everyone else?

Of course, this hasn’t happened in europe. but they don’t have quite the appetite for government-sponsored corruption that we do. :)

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