Merck says it's being coerced into negotiating it's drug prices with Medicare. LOL

[sarcasmo]

Translation: Corporation upset Medicare is eating it to their profits.


Snip< Lawsuit filed June 9th by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Merck doesn't have the right to sell it's drugs at the price Merck would prefer.


https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/column-merck-says-being-coerced-120009297.html

[NewHendoLib]

1. Drug company coerced into treating people decently

I worked in Big Pharma for 25 years. Do I have stories....

[sarcasmo]

2. I used to deliver for Pfizer back in the 90's, what a trip.

[NewHendoLib]

4. I was a chemist, then a project manager.

Peter principle in full swing there.

[raging moderate]

5. Poor Big Pharma!

Waterloo!

[spooky3]

3. Big Pharma has negotiated with Big Private Insurance for a long time.

It’s long past time for Medicare to be treated the same way.

[Wounded Bear]

12. They also negotiate with the VA...

[Walleye]

6. Drug companies are eating up our savings. Screw their profits

[Native]

7. Only in Americorp.

[Enoki33]

8. Wonder how much their CEO is paid?

[NowISeetheLight]

15. Since you asked

Found online:

Merck's CEO is Rob Davis, appointed in Apr 2021, he has a tenure of 2.17 years. His total yearly compensation is $18.65M , comprised of 8.2% salary and 91.8% bonuses, including company stock and options. He directly owns 0.011% of the company's shares, worth $29.89M.

[Enoki33]

17. Thanks. Obscene compensation.

[onecaliberal]

9. How tone deaf does one have to be to complain about something you're doing to the people when it is

being done to you?

[onecaliberal]

10. How tone deaf does one have to be to complain about something you're doing to the people when it is

being done to you?

[Midnight Writer]

11. I'm being coerced into paying ten times the amount the same drugs cost in Europe.

[KentuckyWoman]

13. Merck can sell any price it wants.

No customer is required to pay it. Medicare is a customer. Besides, taxpayers already covered the full costs of R&D.

Merck has a choice. They have a choice. Drop prices in the US or give up the grants and write offs.

[NowISeetheLight]

14. Sorry

They can afford it. Gouging US seniors and taxpayers has to end. Why are we stuck paying 5x and more for medications compared to other industrialized nations?

Cancer drug Keytruda is $12500 a month in the US and $3200 in the UK. Our corrupt greedy health system incentives profits over patients.

From Statista:

Top 20 profitable Merek drugs.

Drug. Revenue (In millions)
Keytruda 20,937
Gardasil 6,897
Lagevrio. 5,684
Januvia 2,813
ProQuad* 2,241
Janumet 1,700
Bridion 1,685
Lynparza (alliance revenue) 1,116
Lenvima (alliance revenue) 876
RotaTeq 783

From Statista:

"What was Mereks revenue last year?

The revenue of Merck & Co. increased in 2022, rising from 48.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 to approximately 59.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2022."

From Macrotrends:

"What is Merck's annual profit?

Merck net income for the twelve months ending March 31, 2023 was $13.030B, a 8.11% decline year-over-year. Merck annual net income for 2022 was $14.519B, a 11.27% increase from 2021. Merck annual net income for 2021 was $13.049B, a 84.65% increase from 2020.

From FiercePharma:

"Does pharma spend more on marketing than R&D? A numbers check?

For instance, Lowe found that Merck ($MRK) spends 27% of its revenue on SG&A and 17.3% on research and development. "

[gratuitous]

16. Sort of off topic

There was a report last night on NBC News about a promising new drug for glioblastomas (brain cancer). Two researchers combined a couple of readily-available pharmaceutical ingredients, one that targets cells that provide a host for cancer cells and one that targets the cells that feed the cancer-hosting cells. I didn't quite grasp all of it, and I may have completely butchered the real explanation with my thumbnail account above.

But as I watched the segment, I thought that someone's going to patent this and make a mint. Even though the research has been done by two guys and the ingredients for the vaccine (yes, it's a shot you get in your upper arm, just like a flu shot or a covid shot) have done all the work, some big company is going to swoop in and appropriate the vaccine for itself and charge patients (and their insurance companies) out the wazoo.

No, they didn't have to do any research or tests or trials, and the stuff that goes into the vaccine is cheap and readily available, but Merck or Pfizer or some other Big Pharma company will whine that they have to make a reasonable profit off of brain cancer patients because reasons. And no, the fact that the CEO got paid $53 million last year doesn't enter into this discussion at all, so stop talking about that!