
Congressman calls for probe into Valeant’s pricing of lead poisoning drug - rgejman
https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2016/10/21/congressman-probe-valeant-lead-poisoning-drug/?s_campaign=stat:rss
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rgejman
The real disgusting thing here is that EDTA, the heavy metal chelator, is one
of the most commonly used chemicals in molecular biology. It costs very little
to synthesize and is very stable when stored at room temp. In fact, it can be
stored as a powder and reconstituted just-in-time to increase stability. There
really is no reason this drug should cost more than a few dollars.

~~~
ceterum_censeo
> With respect to concerns about the list price of CDV, past price actions
> enabled the provision of consistent supply of a product with high carrying
> costs and very limited purchase volume of 200-300 units per year. The list
> price of CDV does not reflect the actual cost of the product to hospitals
> that purchase it, after rebates and other adjustments. Because CDV has a
> relatively limited shelf life and the minimum CDV purchase requirement for
> Valeant is roughly 3-5 times higher than recent annual sales volume, we have
> written down at our own expense approximately half of purchased quantities
> in the past few years. The company does not generate material revenue from
> this product, which represents less than 0.01% of our total revenue.

(statement by Valeant)

A _pharmaceutical_ that is being produced in such low volumes, irrespective of
how mundane and cheap the raw chemical may be, cannot be produced cheaply.

~~~
Moshe_Silnorin
The nootropics community often have kilograms of very complex novel compounds
synthesized in one off batches for far far less than the list price of this
drug. Perhaps this could be synthesized on demand.

~~~
barkbro
Keep in mind that the requirements for an IV drug are much higher than those
of nootropic enthusiasts. All compontents have to be within a narrow
concentration range (consistently, across batches) and very low levels of
byproducts are allowed.

I'm not saying it's as expensive as Valeant claims, but it might be more
expensive than you think.

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adrenalinelol
While some will condemn this is runaway greed, this is a natural side-effect
of a healthcare system turned over to the private market. Outcomes and/or
public health improvements are side-effects, if the happen great, but the
motive will always be profit, regardless of how you get there (so long as it's
legal).

~~~
Moshe_Silnorin
This is a side effect of regulations which prevent the competition from
selling chemicals that are very cheap to synthesize. Createing monopolies and
then trying to fix the ills this causes with a government monopsony seems
backwards.

~~~
chongli
Regulations are, like many other forces, subject to forming equilibria. Too
many, and you get EpiPen price gouging; not enough, and you get the melamine
milk scandal[0].

I agree that creating monopolies and then fighting them with monopsonies is
ridiculous, backwards, silly, and inefficient. But life is a coordination
game[1], so _too bad_ [2]!

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_game)

[2] [http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-
moloch/](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/)

------
adventured
It's worth noting that Valeant has addressed this and the drug in question
would not work as politicians such as Bernie Sanders have been implying in
relation to what happened in Flint Michigan:

[http://www.valeantnow.com/valeant-corrects-inaccurate-
statem...](http://www.valeantnow.com/valeant-corrects-inaccurate-statements-
regarding-calcium-disodium-versenate-cdv/)

------
microcolonel
For what it's worth, they bought it as a failing product with decreasing sales
volume. It could be that for the reasons they laid out, it could not be
reasonably produced in such small quantities without incurring a loss, which
would explain why they were sold it.

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M_Grey
Oh goody, another probe for political points that won't address the insane
underlying issues, which Congress is responsible for in the first place. What
a joke, and what a poor excuse for "circus".

The healthcare and IP systems in this country need an enema.

------
merraksh
_Two years ago, the drug maker boosted the list price for Calcium EDTA by
roughly 2,700 percent._

I understand the need for large numbers to wow the reader, but I find this
less clear than "Two years ago, the drug maker multiplied the price of Calcium
EDTA by 28".

~~~
jamroom
This is a standard way to present price changes. We don't say "the price was
multiplied by 1.5" \- we just say the price went up 50%. This isn't there to
"wow" anything - we should already be wowed by the greed being presented in
this case.

