Robert Reich: Pharma Looting
on Friday, October 9, 2020Robert Reich Money Quote saying Big Pharma companies are looting from the pockets of U.S. Citizens by inflating costs of coronavirus meds that taxpayers paid to develop. Robert Reich said:
“Big Pharma company Gilead is charging $3,000 for a coronavirus drug that costs them less than $10 to produce. If that’s not looting, I don’t know what is” — Robert Reich
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In this quote, Robert Reich is strongly criticizing the pharmaceutical company Gilead for excessively profiting from their coronavirus drug remdesivir. Reich notes that while it costs Gilead less than $10 to produce each treatment course of the drug, they are charging patients $3,000.
By pointing out this huge disparity between production costs and the price charged, Reich is arguing that Gilead is exploiting the pandemic for enormous financial gain rather than just seeking fair profits.
He asserts that if setting a price over 300 times the cost of production during a health crisis is not considered “looting”, then nothing fits that definition.
Overall, Reich views Gilead’s pricing as predatory profiteering from a drug developed with public funds, rather than reasonable profit-seeking, given the humanitarian context of a global pandemic.
Big Pharma company Gilead is charging $3,000 for a coronavirus drug that costs them less than $10 to produce. If that’s not looting, I don’t know what is.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) October 7, 2020