Did you ever come across news that just makes you cringe in disgust? Not “fake” news or information someone is spewing to throw someone off or on to a trail that does not reflect reality … but a realistic assessment of events or policies that just are not by any means balanced or fair. It seems there at a never ending series of these types of situations here in Arizona, the USA and around the world. I thought I would write them down as I see them.
Pharmaceutical Charges:
Bloomberg Businessweek (August 28, 2017 issue) reported that Roche Holding AG, the large pharmaceutical company, through their biotech affiliate Genentech reformulated a successful cancer drug called “Rituxan” that was also used off label (not FDA approved) very successfully to treat Multiple Sclerosis. The new drug is called “Ocrevus” and is now just approved by the US FDA.
“How these medications work is exactly the same” according to Annette Langer-Gould a former assistant medical director at Genentech.
Roche could not arbitrarily raise the price of the cancer drug Rituxan … so they created a development plan including FDA approval that would bring Ocrevus to market.
Annual Cost of Rituxan in the US: $8-$10K
Annual Cost of Ocrevus in the US: $65K
In this case “Free Market” means taking advantage of patent protections and the unilateral pricing power afforded by the FDA imprimatur. “Free Market” in this case also means that US Tax payers and Insurance premiums are jacked by 8X over another effective treatment.
Repeat and Rinse 100s of times across our pharmaceutical industry and no wonder we pay 50% more than the next major industrialized country for healthcare.
“Legal” Tax Avoidance by the owners of Chanel and the U.K. government
In 2022, amid severe budget shortfalls and workers seeking raises after two+ years of austerity due to COVID lockdowns, we learned about the owners of Chanel, Gerard and Alain Wertheimer, giving themselves a 5 Billion dollar dividend sent to their Family Office, Mousse Partners in the Cayman Islands. It turns out that apparently, no one knew that the British do not tax dividends sent to offshore owners, and no one knew that the Cayman Islands do not tax dividends. It seems like a match made in heaven to get large sums of money from the UK without paying taxes on the profits. Since the Cayman Islands is a British territory, it seems odd that policymakers would have set up this mechanism to benefit their richest citizens. I’m being sarcastic; it is not odd; it is hypocrisy of the highest degree, and if it were not “legal,” it would be criminal.
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