Making Life a Commodity

Did the price on males 25-40 rise today?

Drug maker Mylan and its CEO Heather Bresch are the newest monsters that has channeled the public's rage. The makers, and distributors, of the life saving EpiPen have dramatically increased the price of the medicine from around $100 in 2008 to over $600 today. Since the price increase Mylan has seen its stock price triple and Bresch's compensation has gone from $2.5 million a year to nearly $19 million. The furor over the EpiPen price gouge has even united many in the Republican and Democratic parties in condemning Mylan. Much like the controversy related to the steep price increase in the drug Daraprim, the public rage being directed towards Mylan and Bresch is meant to shame and cause meaningful change. What Mylan and Bresch have done, like Turing Pharmaceuticals and former CEO Martin Shkreli, is increase profits for billionaires at the expense of the lives of poor people with life threatening conditions. In their world the ability to make money is more important than saving a dying child.

In an interview to do some damage control, CEO Bresch told CNBC that "No one's more frustrated than me." about the dramatic increase in the price of the life saving EpiPen. "I'm running a business" is the excuse that Bresch gives to answer why the price of the drug keeps going up. The tone deafness of Mylan and Bresch does nothing to quell the public's rage over the EpiPen price gouge. It should not. The lack of humanity from people like Shkreli and Bresch continues to highlight the gap between the very rich, and everyone else. People are rightfully getting angry.

The problem is that Heather Bresch is right, she is running a business. What Mylan has done by increasing the price of the EpiPen is not illegal, in fact it is encouraged in capitalism. Turing Pharmaceuticals did lower the price of Daraprim, but it still costs 2500% higher than it did before the hike. Mylan bought the rights to the EpiPen (the drug is generic, the delivery system is what has value) in 2007, and has been raising the price 10% or more every year. This is how the for profit drug companies make money. Mylan did no research and development in creating the EpiPen. They do not sell the device at a loss. The EpiPen is a strong, and endless, revenue stream for the billion dollar company. By raising the price of the drug, Bresch has done exactly what she was hired to do, make money for Mylan.

In the United States drug companies can charge whatever they want. One of the core tennets of capitalism is to charge what the market will accept. When you are the sole provider of a life saving medication, the cost of a person's life can be quite large. Other industrialized nations have governmental agencies that negotiate with drug manufacturers to make sure that the cost of life saving medicines are not out of reach to the average consumer. It is illegal in the United States for the government to negotiate with drug manufacturers. The drug companies charge whatever they want, for profit insurance companies pass those charges onto their customers, and the US government subsidizes both the drug makers and insurance providers. The only person losing money is the consumer because they need the drugs to stay alive. US capitalism has put a price on life. That price is whatever the drug companies want it to be.

This is evil. When Mylan bough the rights to the EpiPen, CEO Bresch did not want to save lives. The company bought the product because they could make an obscene amount of money. The company claims to be concerned with the well being of general public by offering coupons and other means to make the EpiPen more affordable, but Mylan still makes over $600 off of the drug. The consumer may not pay the full price, but insurance rate hikes and government subsidies will cover the full cost of the EpiPen. One does not need an MBA, there are a lot of questions about Heather Bresch's education, to understand how to use an immoral system to make money. Mylan saw profit, no matter the consequences. The consequences of price gouging the EpiPen can mean death for those not blessed enough like Heather Bresch and the board of directors at Mylan. 

Mylan is not the first company to buy a cheap life saving drug and use their monoply to make obscene amounts of money and endanger innocent people at the same time. Heather Bresch is not the first soulless CEO to claim to be the victim in a world of bad press. They are not the first, and they will not be the last. The millionaires who are the elected representatives of the United States citizens would rather protect corporate interests than be concerned about the health of their constituents. Being one of the only civilized nations without government oversight on drug prices, the ruling class in Washington DC thinks that american lives are a commodity. Drug companies like Mylan, Turing Pharmaceuticals, and many others keep cozy with Washington so the lives of Americans can be quantified. It is sick and it needs to stop.

The righteous anger over the radical increase in the price of the EpiPen should not go away. An economically challenged child born with a peanut allergy, through no fault of their own, should not have to die because Mylan and Heather Bresch wanted to add shareholder value. We need to be angry, we need to demand change. Bresch's frustration should not be because she is being bothered by bad press, her frustration should stem from the fact that her company is not finding life saving cures and giving them away for free. One's health, one's life, should never be part of the bottom line in any company's earnings report. Mylan and Heather Bresch deserve to be frustrated. 

Healthcare is in trouble, and allowing immoral people to continue to make millions on the broken system needs to stop. The EpiPen battle is just the first skirmish in a war to make American lives valuable again. Call your elected representative, write an impassioned plea on social media, yell through a megaphone, but do not let the furor over the EpiPen die. The drug companies, and their cronies in Washington DC, need to feel the wrath of America. You should be the only one who can put value on your life, not a grotesque company with an uncaring CEO. Life is not a commodity, because life is something more than a monetary value.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Are drug companies the heroes that the business press makes them out to be? No they are not. Let RD know where he is misguided by writing for SeedSing. 

Martin Shkreli is the Hero America Deserves

This is the normal physical reaction when one hears the words "Martin Shkreli"

The internet's latest ragefest is all about "pharma-bro" Martin Shkreli. According to the masses Mr. Shkreli is an abomination of a human being with no empathy and a total disregard for a civilized society. He is a spoiled punk brat who uses his influence to make money off of the backs of the less fortunate. He has no remorse. He has no compassion. He is a monster. Martin Shkreli is so bad, that our incompetent elected officials in Washington D.C. are being seen as the sympathetic party when it comes to Mr Shkreli's testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. When one person can make the idiots in Congress looks good, that person deserves to be demonized.

I am not here to demonize Martin Shkreli, I am here to praise him. I in no way support the idea of jacking up the price of a life saving drug in order to make another billion. That is monsterous. The question I have is what law did he break (there is the securities fraud issue, but he has not been convicted of anything)? The press likes to focus on the obscene mark-up on the life saving drug Daraprim. By raising the price 5556% ($13.50 a dose to $750.00 a dose) Mr. Shkreli put lives in danger. Daraprim is used to treat infections in HIV positive patients, and is used globally to treat and prevent malaria. The World Health Organization lists the drug as an essential medicine. This mark-up on a life saving drug, coupled with Martin Shkreli's arrogance, has made the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO a popular target for people fed up with corporate greed. The problem is that by raising the price on Daraprim, Mr. Shkreli did not break the law. He embraced a culture that is encouraged by our government and society as a whole. Plus, Martin Shkreli is not the first person to do this.

The practice of pharma companies buying generic drugs and radically raising their prices is not new. Do you know anyone with asthma? There is a very good chance that the asthmatic person uses an inhaler with the drug Albuterol sulfate. This is a life saving medicine for a very treatable illness. In 2013 Albuterol sulfate was $11 a dose. Six months later the price had gone up to $434 a dose, an increase of 4014%. Where was the public outrage towards the pharma companies? The drug was another off patent drug, but the delivery system (inhaler) needed to be redesigned because of new government regulations. The Pharma companies knew the inhalers would be protected by patents, so they jacked up the price of Albuterol to make some extra money (Mother Jones has a nice article describing the situation). I never remember seeing congress scolding at the CEO responsible for this greed?

There are many more drugs, ones not owned by Turing Pharmaceuticals, that have had their prices skyrocket. In 2014 Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) launched a Congressional investigation into the skyrocketing cost of generic drugs. They put together a list of drugs that have recently seen a drastic increase in cost (see the list) and tried to get answers from the pharma companies. There were no answers, there was no public outcry, there was no congressional investigation, there was no prosecution, and there was no change in the laws to make this practice illegal.. These pharma companies were just doing what the United States government allows them to do. 

Now the government wants to get serious because Martin Shkreli is an unlikable fellow. The Republicans (you know the free market guys) and Democrats decide to use Mr. Shkreli as their scapegoat for their own incompetence. They have no case. Representative Cummings  stupidly decided to attack Mr. Shkreli because of the purchase by the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO of the one of a kind Wu-Tang Clan album. If I had a few billion dollars I would have bought the Wu-Tang Clan album, they are one of the greatest american bands ever. What is the point of attacking the man for having great taste in music. That whole tirade by Representative Cummings proves that the government is showboating. Those Representatives created this America, Martin Shkreli is just getting rich off of their incompetence.

It is also amusing that all the supposed free market Republicans want to attack Mr. Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals for the price gouge. These bozos have been defending corporate greed for decades. Why are we not yelling at the health insurance companies who are making money off of people getting sick? They set arbitrary prices all the time just to make a few extra billion. The same charlatans in Congress who got mad at Mr. Shkreli will turn around and praise government welfare queens like Jamie Diamon and other business leaders who depend on bailouts. The only reason Congress decided to grill Martin Shkreli is because the internet is mad at him. There is nothing that can be done to stop him. Well the government could try to pass some laws to make this practice illegal, but that will never happen. The Republicans and Democrats alike would never upset their big money donors, no matter how many people need to suffer. 

Martin Shkreli is an american hero. He is the embodiment of the modern American dream. Born to immigrants who worked as janitors, Martin Shkreli made his way in the world be exploiting our inhumane economic culture. We celebrate these people as geniuses. America deserves Martin Shkreli. He is the hero we deserve. He got rich with shady legal practices, he increases his wealth with inhuman actions, and he smirks his way through life. He is a modern American creation. Plus he is also quite aware that Congress is full of imbeciles. While kids are getting poisoned in Flint, Michigan, through the direct fault of the government, the US Congress wants to scold a successful business man. That is the mark of a house led by imbeciles. Thanks you American hero Martin Shkreli for speaking the truth.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. Do you want to sing the praises of the downtrodden? Come write for us.