hedge funds and pharma do not mix (IMO)

mcat2
Thu, 31 Dec 2015 22:25:35 +0000

Pills that cost $30-$50 in this country often sell for fifty cents in other countries.

DS once told me that he learned from some sources that sometimes a drug will be changed slightly from time to time. Even though there is not much noticeable improvement in the new drugs, they inflate the price significantly. This applies to some of the expensive medical equipment too. I heard there is some type of radiation equipment for cancer patients which is so expensive that there are only like half of dosens of medical centers which have it, and its improvement over the more traditional radiation equipment is minimal at best for treating most types of cancers.

Looking at the big picture, most patients are not cost-justified to be treated by such an insanely expensive equipment/procedures. If the super rich people want it, fund the research for such equipment and pay for the procedures by themselves. Do not ask the the majority of tax payers to help fund it also just because the top 2-3% population want it.

On the funny side: my wife showed me a cartoon showing the differences between how a rich person makes money (or living) and how a typical person makes money (or living):

Both a rich person and a poor one are shown going fishing on a river bank. The poor one goes fishing as a normal person would do: He fishes one fish at a time from the river and put the fish in a bucket.

On the other hand, the rich person fishes by using fish rod with a large hook. He uses the hook to pick up the bucket of a poor person when the poor person’s bucket is full of fishes and makes all the fishes in other’s bucket his own, and leaves the poor person empty-handed at the end of the day.

It exaggerates the situation of course but it is funny anyway.