[ExI] thiel goes south

[Giulio Prisco]

"...Novartis priced the drug at $475,000 for one treatment, Bloomberg
reports, “well below even higher expectations of up to $700,000.”

This raises ethical concerns. Of course, drug development costs money,
and a private company like Novartis is entitled to recover costs and
make a profit. But, in the US, the FDA approval process itself adds
billions of dollars to drug development costs. Therefore, it could be
argued that suffering US patients are ultimately required to pay
hundreds of thousands of dollars each to support inefficient
regulation.

In related news, Peter Thiel and other libertarian investors are
funding an offshore human clinical trial of a herpes vaccine,
“skirting FDA regulations and sparking a heated debate over US safety
rules,” as reported by TechCrunch. As usual, facts play a very minor
role in the heated and heavily politicized debate, but a Reason
article tries to at least get the facts right..."

Note that "to support inefficient regulation" is an understatement. I
worded it this way for a biotech newsletter, but I would use MUCH
stronger words in a political debate.

https://thrivous.com/blogs/views/pulse-31-fda-approves-first-gene-therapy