Dec. 7, 2022 -- About 6 million Americans have received the medication Paxlovid for free to prevent COVID-19 hospitalization and even death.

But next year, the government will no longer subsidize the cost, and Americans will have to pay for the Pfizer drug just like any other medicine.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20221207/when-feds-pull-subsidy-cost-of-paxlovid-will-hit-americans-hard

Politicians can get re-elected running on a platform to restore free Paxlovid, which shouldn't be dropped in the first place.

On 10/12/2022 06:31, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
> On Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 10:57:58 AM UTC+11, Fred Bloggs wrote:
>> Dec. 7, 2022 -- About 6 million Americans have received the medication Paxlovid for free to prevent COVID-19 hospitalization and even death.
>>
>> But next year, the government will no longer subsidize the cost, and Americans will have to pay for the Pfizer drug just like any other medicine.
>>
>> https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20221207/when-feds-pull-subsidy-cost-of-propriatorywill-hit-americans-hard
>>
>> Politicians can get re-elected running on a platform to restore free Paxlovid, which shouldn't be dropped in the first place.
>
> Or the pharmaceutical industry will work out how to make it more cheaply. There's always another way of synthesising complicated organic chemicals
>
> https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Nirmatrelvir
>
> and if the market is big enough somebody will find a cheaper way of making it. Patent royalties are another matter, but a smaller royalty on much larger sales tends to be negotiable, particularly when the government gets involved.

The synthetic route usually makes little contribution to the cost of a
medicine. The costs come in efficacy and safety testing, both animal and
clinical. Fifteen years of patent protection can mean little when it can
take 5 - 10 years to get a product approved. When there are compelling
reasons, approval can be much faster. Even then, success may be short
lived, and the cost of the next medicine might have to be increased to
account for losses, or lack of expected profits, with a previous medicine:
<https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/etf-warns-monoclonal-antibodies-may-not-be-effective-against-emerging-strains-sars-cov-2>

It's not just the patent - at least in Europe. The product will have
regulatory protection against a generic, or even another branded
version, for many years following approval by the European Medicines
Agency. The UK operates a similar system. I don't know if anything
similar is used in the USA, Canada, and Australia.

--

Jeff

On 09/12/2022 23:57, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> Dec. 7, 2022 -- About 6 million Americans have received the medication Paxlovid for free to prevent COVID-19 hospitalization and even death.
>
> But next year, the government will no longer subsidize the cost, and Americans will have to pay for the Pfizer drug just like any other medicine.
>
> https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20221207/when-feds-pull-subsidy-cost-of-paxlovid-will-hit-americans-hard
>
> Politicians can get re-elected running on a platform to restore free Paxlovid, which shouldn't be dropped in the first place.

I'm not convinced that Paxlovid makes all that much difference against
the latest strains in otherwise healthy vaccinated individuals.

Vaccine refuseniks can pay for their stupidity or die if they can't...

It will just be the same US "healthcare" business as usual. First world
medical treatment for the rich and third world treatment for the poor.

It shows up clearly in average US life expectancy figures.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 1:31:06 AM UTC-5, bill....@ieee.org wrote:
> On Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 10:57:58 AM UTC+11, Fred Bloggs wrote:
> > Dec. 7, 2022 -- About 6 million Americans have received the medication Paxlovid for free to prevent COVID-19 hospitalization and even death.
> >
> > But next year, the government will no longer subsidize the cost, and Americans will have to pay for the Pfizer drug just like any other medicine.
> >
> > https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20221207/when-feds-pull-subsidy-cost-of-propriatorywill-hit-americans-hard
> >
> > Politicians can get re-elected running on a platform to restore free Paxlovid, which shouldn't be dropped in the first place.
> Or the pharmaceutical industry will work out how to make it more cheaply. There's always another way of synthesising complicated organic chemicals
>
> https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Nirmatrelvir
>
> and if the market is big enough somebody will find a cheaper way of making it. Patent royalties are another matter, but a smaller royalty on much larger sales tends to be negotiable, particularly when the government gets involved.

Doesn't look like the market is all that big. The dollar amount sounds large but that's only because of their price point. Six million people in a year in U.S., with the number declining, together with fact the 5-day treatment is a one time therapy in most cases, doesn't really add up to a huge market. And Pfizer has just about given the licensing away. It was never destined to be a blockbuster like sildenafil.

:

In November 2021, Pfizer signed a license agreement with the United Nations–backed Medicines Patent Pool to allow nirmatrelvir to be manufactured and sold in 95 countries.[24] Pfizer stated that the agreement will allow local medicine manufacturers to produce the pill "with the goal of facilitating greater access to the global population". The deal excludes several countries with major COVID-19 outbreaks including Brazil, China, Russia, Argentina, and Thailand.[25][26]

:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirmatrelvir#Licensing

IOW, if the country can pay, Pfizer wants as much of their money as possible, so they can take the loss from the global giveaway while still making good money. Seems that happens with quite a few pharmaceuticals, Americans subsidizing global availability.

>
> --
> Bill Sloman, Sydney