The Pros And Cons Of HIV Medication

I believe that companies should not be able to set their prices without regulation. In a New York Times editorial Joe Biden’s economic adviser stated, “we cannot count on drug companies to make necessary medicines affordable or count on them to develop the drugs we most need” (Bernstein). HIV Medication falls under the healthcare market. It’s not ethical to drive up the prices on commonly used drugs that people use to survive. The inflation of prices can create market failure. The issue at hand is that an individual’s pursuit of pure self-interest leads to results that are not efficient. A drug called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars. …show more content…
These patients use this drug to survive, doctors started to attempt to hoard it in order to provide it. This pill that can be made for just pennies, started at $1.00, then jumped to $13.50 and then $750 when Turing bought it. They are a free market settlement. Turing is able to exclude buyers from using this service. There was a switch from drugstores to controlled distribution made in June by Impax, not by Turing. Still, controlled distribution was a strategy Mr. Shkreli talked about at his previous company as a way to prevent generics. Some hospitals say they now have trouble getting the drug. The only financial incentive to conserve the resource is profitability for the