{"id":1539,"date":"2007-06-06T07:14:53","date_gmt":"2007-06-06T12:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/utilitarianism\/"},"modified":"2007-06-06T07:14:53","modified_gmt":"2007-06-06T12:14:53","slug":"utilitarianism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/utilitarianism","title":{"rendered":"Utilitarianism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every summer, when we get rolling on the annual Top 20 Pharma \/ Top 10 Biopharma report<\/a>, my trusty associate editor compiles pipeline information for the past year. While I suss out sales figures and try to parse the arcana of accounting, she puts together lists of new drugs that were approved, extensions or new indications for approved drugs, those that are filed and pending approval, those that have lost patent protection, research projects in late-phase or early-phase studies, and those that were canceled or rejected.<\/p>\n

That last category, the could-have-beens, is a testament to the enormous risk that drug companies take on. This year’s #1 company, Pfizer, recently had to cancel development of a drug that would have brought in upwards of $50 billion in revenues during its lifecycle. Future revenues are kaput and $1 billion in R&D investment has been flushed away with it.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Michael Moore has a strategy for eliminating this expense and the risk! America needs to regulate drug companies “like utilities since they’re just as important as electricity and water<\/a>.” That’ll make them more productive and less expensive! Of course!<\/p>\n

I mean, outside of the fact that the U.S. power grid is antiquated and prone to collapse<\/a>, and that the water supply in this house was provided by a well for 35 years, I’d have to say he almost knows what he’s talking about.<\/p>\n

I do find it funny when people tell me the pharma industry needs more regulation, and that drugs should be cheaper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every summer, when we get rolling on the annual Top 20 Pharma \/ Top 10 Biopharma report, my trusty associate editor compiles pipeline information for the past year. While I suss out sales figures and try to parse the arcana of accounting, she puts together lists of new drugs that were approved, extensions or new … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Utilitarianism”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-pharmaceuticals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-oP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2077,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/bottoms-up","url_meta":{"origin":1539,"position":0},"title":"Bottoms up","author":"Gil","date":"May 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry I didn't post earlier in the day, dear readers. I was just building up my courage for the plunge into our annual Top Companies Report, where I profile the top 20 pharma companies and top 10 biopharmas. I just have to tell myself, \"Come July 2, it'll all be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000FI73MA","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1054,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/and-they-said-id-never-amount-to-anything","url_meta":{"origin":1539,"position":1},"title":"And they said I’d never amount to anything","author":"Gil","date":"July 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm interviewing a pair of companies this morning for an article in my September issue. Their combined 2005 revenues were $126 billion. One's a major drug company, the other a major healthcare distributor. Margins are a funny thing: the drug company had around $52 billion in sales, with a cost-of-goods\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1019,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/pfed","url_meta":{"origin":1539,"position":2},"title":"Pf***ed","author":"Gil","date":"July 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry for the lack of posts, readers! I'm really busy on the home-stretch of that Top Companies special issue. Gotta finish the final profile today, so's I can head to the shore tomorrow without worrying about it. I decided to save the biggest one for last: Pfizer. As you may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pharmaceuticals"","block_context":{"text":"Pharmaceuticals","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business\/pharmaceuticals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":388,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm","url_meta":{"origin":1539,"position":3},"title":"Pharma BluesGood post by Jane\u2026","author":"Gil","date":"October 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Pharma BluesGood post by Jane Galt (with TONS of great comments) about the problems with drug pricing in the U.S.In my magazine this month, I posed the following question to my Editorial Advisory Board members for the \"Ask the Board\" feature: \"How do you explain U.S. drug pricing to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":512,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/medicare-frauds","url_meta":{"origin":1539,"position":4},"title":"Medicare Frauds","author":"Gil","date":"March 8, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"What's $320 billion among friends?(Editorial from the March issue of my magazine) Last March and April in this space I wrote about the scandal(s) behind the passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill. At the time, I was irate over the fact that the White House hid $134 billion in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pharmaceuticals"","block_context":{"text":"Pharmaceuticals","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business\/pharmaceuticals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1543,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/i-want-a-new-drug","url_meta":{"origin":1539,"position":5},"title":"I want a new drug","author":"Gil","date":"June 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I enjoy writing the big Top 20 Pharma \/ Top 10 Biopharma report each June. Sure, it's not what I imagined I'd be doing when I was a brooding, pretentious idiot in college, but it turns out that there's plenty of fun to be had in researching and writing these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}