StemCell Therapy

Many people dislike drug companies. Drug companies often charge a lot of money for their products. Sometimes their drugs dont work. Sometimes they have side effects. Sometimes they are addictive. Even the best drugs wont keep us alive forever.

But, during the coronavirus pandemic, we are relying on drug companies and other healthcare companies to save our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

While government plays a vital role in managing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its the private sector that will provide the solutions to identify and fight the disease. Who would you rather depend on profit-making private companies or bureaucratic government agencies?

The CDC response

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control, a federal agency, was initially tasked with providing tests for COVID-19. Its test kits could not detect the difference between COVID-19 and lab-grade water.

The CDC also limited testing to patients who had recently traveled to China and were symptomatic. Whoops!

The lack of reliable test kits enabled the disease to spread throughout the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined on Feb. 29 that certified labs, including commercial lab testing companies, could develop and distribute COVID-19 test kits.

Private companies and clinics stepped up quickly. Some examples:

The Cleveland Clinic developed an eight-hour test kit.

Hackensack Meridian Health developed a rapid response test kit that can provide results within a few hours.

On March 23, Everlywell became the first company to offer a test kit that consumers can use at home.

Roche shipped 400,000 test kits to labs across the United States beginning March 13, and an additional 400,000 the following week.

Thermo Fisher Scientific developed a test kit that can detect COVID-19 within four hours.

Drug companies in the United States and throughout the world are also working to develop a vaccine to fight COVID-19.

Cambridge-based Moderna Inc. has already begun Phase 1 testing of its mRNA-1273 vaccine that is based on the genetic sequence of COVID-19. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals of Tarrytown, New York, is working on an antibody treatment that uses the virus to build up antibodies that fight COVID-19. Inovio Pharmaceuticals of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania., is developing INO-4800, a vaccine similar to Modernas that is made from optimized DNA plasmids.

But thats just a sample. At least 16 U.S. pharmaceutical companies are working on vaccines for COVID-19.

The government has been doing its part. President Trump declared a national emergency and Congress has been negotiating a massive spending bill, while the Federal Reserve Board dropped interest rates back to zero, resumed bond buying and provided liquidity to the banking system. None of these actions reassured investors and stopped the stock market from tanking. Recall that during the financial crisis, the Obama Administration invested more than $800 billion in a stimulus that stimulated the federal debt, but not the economy.

Communism vs. capitalism

While the government and private sector have both been working hard to battle the coronavirus, the Chinese government has been working hard to preserve the Communist Party by blaming the United States for the pandemic.

When Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang warned his colleagues in late December about a possible coronavirus that resembled SARS, local police reprimanded him for spreading rumors and he was called before a disciplinary council of the local Communist Party and forced to repent and confess, in writing, that he had spread rumors harmful to the glory of the Party, according to City Journal.

In early January, news of the virus started circulating on Chinese social media accounts. The government responded by shutting them down. By silencing news about the outbreak of COVID-19, Communist leaders allowed it to spread, resulting in the pandemic and thousands of deaths that could have been avoided.

Xu Zhiyong, an activist who criticized Chinese President Xi Jinpings response to the coronavirus, was jailed for subversion. Journalists Li Xehua, Fang Bin and Chen Qiushi, who tried to inform the public about the coronavirus outbreak, are all missing. And Western journalists who brought these stories to the worlds attention have been expelled from China.

Wuhan activists, professors and lawyers who had asked for President Xis resignation have all virtually disappeared. In addition to stifling the news at home, Chinas leaders failed to inform other countries about the severity of the coronavirus or to prevent its spread outside of China.

Should China be paying reparations to the rest of the world? Should it at least admit its guilt and apologize? According to an editorial in state-run media agency Xinhua, We should say righteously that the U.S. owes China an apology, the world owes China a thank you.

In addition, while the United States has shipped medical supplies to China to help fight the outbreak, China is threatening to impose export controls on pharmaceuticals needed by the U.S. to fight COVID-19.

In an article in Xinhua, Beijing bragged about its handling of COVID-19, according to Fox News. The article also claimed that China could impose pharmaceutical export controls which would plunge America into the mighty sea of coronavirus.

Without disclosing which drug or drugs are in short supply, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a shortage of raw materials made in China that are needed to produce the drug.

While the United States is the world leader in medical research, China supplies 80% to 90% of antibiotics used in the United States, 70% of acetaminophen and about 40% of heparin, according to Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Government vs. private sector

In other countries where health care is socialized, such as Italy and the United Kingdom, government responses have been underwhelming and politically charged.

Some 4,032 have died in Italy, more than in China, with 627 Italian deaths reported Friday (March 20) the highest daily toll for any country so far, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Which brings us back to the United States, where many Americans believe we would be better off with a socialized healthcare system. After all, many other countries have socialized medicine.

Some believe we should have price controls on drugs. Others believe that drug companies should not make profits and should make life-saving drugs available at no cost.

That belief would lead to no more life-savings drugs being developed, because there would be no incentive for companies to do so. Even if companies wanted to be able to give away free drugs, doing so would quickly put them out of business. Jobs would be eliminated and their stock would become worthless.

The average cost to develop a new drug is $2.6 billion. Post-approval research and development costs, such as the cost of monitoring effectiveness and safety, average $312 million and boost the total cost for each approved drug to almost $3 billion.

Most drugs never make it to market. Only about 12% of drugs that enter clinical testing are eventually approved for public use.

Some drug companies have made a great deal of money. Some have taken advantage of the drug-approval process and charged outrageous prices for their products.

Weve all heard about companies like Theranos, which achieved a valuation of $9 billion based on fraudulent blood-testing technology, or Mylans price gouging for its EpiPen. Companies in any industry that take advantage of their customers usually pay in the end, but in such cases, government involvement is necessary.

Regardless, even with no vaccine yet available, special interest groups that pretend that their interest is our interest are calling for President Trump to prohibit profiteering by Big Pharma during the coronavirus pandemic.

If Big Pharma develops a vaccine that works, the company that does so should make a significant profit. Is there a sector more deserving of a profit than one that saves lives? While small businesses are suffering most during the pandemic, large companies have also had to deal with major losses, a huge drop in their stock price and mounting expenses in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.

In 1900, 37% of all American deaths were from infectious diseases, George Will wrote. Today the figure is 2%.

Id rather the drug companies get a cut of my hard-earned money than the more than 70 groups that are trying to stop them from earning a profit. To my knowledge, none of the 70 groups has criticized President Xi.

Brenda P. Wenning of Newton is president of Wenning Investments LLC in Newton. She can be reached at Brenda@WenningInvestments.com or 617-965-0680. For additional information, visit her blog at http://www.WenningAdvice.com.

Link:
Drug companies are the good guys - MetroWest Daily News

This entry was posted on April 27, 2020 at 4:50 am and is filed under Genetic medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |