Grab That Cash With Both Hands

Molnupiravir. It’s a pill. It’s produced by Merck. Last week this little pill was hailed as the possible second coming. It’s meant to cut the risk of Covid-19 hospitalisation in half for people with moderate or mild illness.

That’s the good news.

The not so good news.

According to a report issued last week by drug pricing experts at the Harvard School of Public Health and King’s College Hospital in London, production cost for the pill is 44 cents each – $17.74 for the recommended five-day treatment. Merck is charging the U.S. government $712 for the same amount of medicine, or 40 times the price.

Let’s repeat that.

Cost = $17.74 / Sell Price = $712.

Here’s the really bad news.

The United States government subsidised the production of that little pill. And by ‘the government’, I mean, of course, taxpayers. You and me. Us. All of us. Except, of course, the super wealthy and Big-Pharma companies like Merck.

But, and it’s a big but, only Merck will ‘share’ in the profits. A report by Quartz says that could amount to $7 billion by the end of this year!

Well, wait a minute. That might not be fair to Merck. I mean, they will have to put some of those profits into the pockets of Dem and Repub lawmakers who are stalling-killing-hoping-it’ll-go-away fair drug pricing legislation.

Is this a great country, or what?!?!