From: lfoard@Turing.ORG (Lawrence C. Foard)
Subject: Re: Phone Zap - Astra in blinding PWAs with ASTRAnomical Greed
Organization: The Turing Project, Charlottesville Virginia.
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 07:49:39 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.141817.14583@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> bn566@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ward Chanley) writes:
>
>Hi...
> 
>The woman I spoke with at ASTRA
>said that the $24,000 figure was too
>high and that average annual cost of
>Foscavir treatment was closer to
>$10,000.  Can anyone (other than
>ASTRA) confirm -either- wholesale
>price?
> 
>She said that she personally was urg-
>in the company to place a cap on
>Foscavir's pricing shedule but could
>not give me a firm time that it might
>happen.

Like a thief telling you that they won't steal your shoes along with
everything else you own.

>She said that ASTRA has spent over
>$50mil developing Foscavir and with
>a five-year patent stands to take
>a loss on the drug. 

$50,000,000/10,000=5,000 patient years
Considering that there are many thousands of HIV+ people
can you say bullshit.

>She couldn't
>give me any figures for how much of
>that R&D cost may have been under-
>written by the government.

What the hell is the government doing giving away our tax money to
companies. Yes I do mean giving away since the company still gets
exclusive use of the patent and can charge any insane amount they want.
If its government funded it should be public domain.

>I told her that if a significant
>percentage of that R&D cost was
>indeed federally funded, then the
>company's "loss" may only be on paper.
>She could neither confirm or deny
>this.  I asked her how many PWAs
>were recieving Foscavir billed
>through Medicare/Medicaid and she
>couldn't give me any hard figures, but
>estimated around 75%.  I said that
>to turn around and bill the government
>an inflated wholesale price for a
>drug that it (may) have funded a maj-
>ority of the R&D on sounded like
>profiteering to me.  

A racket that puts John Gotti to shame. And ethics that make him
look like a saint.

>She said "it
>sounds to me that your anger is with
>the health care system."  I said that
>while we agreed that there is a lot
>that needs to be changed in the
>health care system, allowing a com-
>pany to essentially defruad that sys-
>tem wouldn't promote those changes.

And I thought $800 toilet seats where bad, atleast the military could
afford them, these dips are stealing money from individuals.
 
>I'd like confirmation of ASTRA's
>development cost for Foscavir if any-
>one has it, and I'd also like to know
>how much of that cost is actual and how
>much was federally funded.  Was anyone
>else in the phone zap informed that
>there may be a pricing cap?

Hey good news the Boss said he won't be charging more in protection
money this month. I think you should send him your gratitute for making
sure you store don't burn down.

And of course if we find out your on welfare we will be generous enough
to pay your protection money ourselves, after all we wouldn't want to
look like bad buys would we?
-- 
>>Unix/C Contract worker available 5 years C/unix work experience<<  ______
Available for Telecommuting/Travel and contracts on the T Line       \    /
in the Boston MA area. Send me e-mail for a copy of my Resume.        \  /
       -- VWIS 508-793-9568 (2400 baud), Linux support BBS.--          \/
Xref: sparky alt.politics.homosexuality:5454 rec.scouting:2472