Page 393 - The Case Lab Book

- Roche, the Swiss drugmaker, and Germany’s Merck each fell
more than 2%.

In the UK, the National Health Service is the main buyer and prices are set
through a voluntary scheme between manufacturers and the government,

trying to strike the right balance of serving patients and generating money
to keep the drug pipeline going. Profits are capped to stop prices creeping
too high.

In the US, the buyers are private insurance companies as well as the

government through the Medicare and Medicaid system. It's a market and
prices can go up and down, depending on what people are willing to pay.

'Would you prefer (1) a lower price of our medicine, which is

overwhelmingly paid for by 'Corporate America' and their insurers (who are
reporting record profits) or (2) that we use our resources to research a new
drug for resistant strains of this neglected disease,'

the text read.

He included a passage of text which claimed that the use of Daraprim

has 'eventually led to the inevitable selection of resistant strains'.