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Patently
Ridiculous
This week, the Senate held another hearing examining the rising price of prescription drugs.
I questioned the CEO of AbbVie, the company that makes one of the world’s best-selling prescription drugs, Humira.
The price of that drug has increased more than 100 percent between 2012 and 2018, a ridiculous jump for medication so many people in Texas rely on.
AbbVie has amassed 136 patents on Humira to protect its exclusivity, applying for new ones just as the old ones are ready to expire. This limits competition that would normally lower the price.
My message was that at some point, exclusivity needs to end so lower-cost options can come to the market, offering patients more options.
Making sure Texans have access to their medication at a price they can afford remains one of my top priorities, and I look forward to continuing to work on this issue throughout this Congress.
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After reading this, most people will probably be nodding their heads and saying "yup, our government working for us". But as a Libertarian, I HATE the notion of Closet Communist Cornyn using the power of the gun, that is, the power of big government, to bully corporations into helping them to buy votes. Cornyn looks like he is now jumping on the socialism bandwagon, albeit on the down low.
Cornyn's comments remind me of the socialist fool, Jimmy McMillan, who ran for office on a platform which he called "the rent is too damned high". His campaign video is reminiscent of an SNL skit but it's not a skit. This twerp was just spewing the old socialist line: "My main job is to provide a roof over your head, food on the table and money in your pocket". Back then it was a laughable joke but look at today and we see more mainsteam presidential hopefuls spewing the same socialist bullshit. The mayor of NYC says there's plenty of money, just in the wrong hands. He suggests that he's considering taking real estate from landlords by force of law (i.e. threat of deadly force) and redistributing it to "those in need". Pocahontas Warren and other liberal human stains want to implement a wealth tax, but don't worry it would only target the wealthy. And so here is a very mainsteam player, Cornyn, also throwing his hat into the soft socialism ring with his threat of government enforced price controls on the sale of private property.
Look at what Cornyn points to. He says he doesn't like that AbbVie, owner of some popular drug, has patents on their invention. He makes it sound like some kind of scam that they continue to patent the thing just when prior patents run out. Never mind the fact that waiting like that would expose AbbVie to unwanted competition if someone else filed one of those "hold back" patents first. Cornyn is attacking not only AbbVie's private property rights, but also the US patent system that provides the legal protections that support those property rights in a court of law. This is soft socialism folks, and it is a VERY slippery slope.
You cannot go around fucking those that are the most productive simply based on their success. And government has no rights telling a private property owner how much they should sell drugs for. It's simply not their place. And it gives government waaaaay too much power to pick winners and losers. Big government is ALL about cronyism and after convincing people to let governments pick winners and losers instead of the free marketing doing this job, corrupt, dirty shit stain government will quickly begin picking its cronies to win no matter the consequences to the people. These things always sound like a good deal but in short order the people end up screwing the goose that laid the golden egg.
I've commented on this kind of thing in Venezuela before. In one instance, the government told the owner of a big appliance store that he was "gouging" the people with high prices. No matter that the fake money there was in collapse and all the store owner was doing was passing on the higher prices that HE had to pay since he was buying these products from the manufacturer with a failing currency himself. Well, once prices were forced down, effectively at gun point, the store went out of business and closed its doors. Just like that it went from a situation where at least some people could buy appliances to a situation where nobody could. A similar thing happened to a toy distributor in the Christmas time frame. The owner was actually arrested and perp walked for the camera because he was being unfair and mean to the children with high toy prices. The outcome was the same as the appliance store. Once you fuck the successful people over they realize that rule of law is gone, rule of mob is present and there is no way they are just going to put up with it. They close the doors and leave town. Where in the past some kids would get toys, now nobody gets any. Gee, thanks, big socialist government.
None of the pricing issues have anything to do with those making or distributing the products. The common denominator is that in all cases the stupid people accepted fake money as if it were real. The decay of buying power of fake money is always exponential. It starts off slow but then before you know it can no longer be ignored and then shortly thereafter it's the only thing that matters. Unfortunately, no fake money socialist Satanist elitists ever just decided to stop being a con man. It pretty much always goes to the point where those with the balls and the moral character to do so pick up arms and begin killing their tyrannical oppressors. IF there is anything "exceptional" about Americans, and that's a big IF, we will find a way to take back our country and put us back on the right track for future progress without having to use physical force against the "cost of drugs is too damned high" socialist liberals.
I like how honest things were in monarchies, when any bastard could literally become the king. Instead of patent and copyright, such protection rackets were just called royal privilege.
ReplyDeleteThere has to be some way of supporting those who took the risk of spending time and money to create something that the herd deems valuable. The minute they get rid of IP rights is the minute everyone hangs back and attempts to be a fast follower of the leaders. Shortly thereafter, no more leaders. Why? Because it doesn't pay. All risk and no reward never works to incent the herd to progress and better itself.
ReplyDeleteHistory and our personal experience, as inventors, prove you wrong. Neither patents nor copyright has done anything to foster research or creativity. The goal has always been to protect the owners of the means of production or distribution from competition by erecting artificial barriers of entry to newcomers.
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