About Manufacturing Pharmaceuticals In Space

Because the profit margin is Huge…

Drug manufacturing is incredibly profitable. Potentially it’s the highest margin physical product literally ever, according to an article on Not Boring by Packy McCormick, from which I will draw extensively for the rest of this brief story. It’s so lucrative because, broadly, molecules that are cheap to produce can be sold for comparatively astronomical prices — some in the hundreds of billions of dollars per kilogram range — for the lifetime of the drug’s patent.

… so offensive, I don’t know where to begin.

@khurtwilliams and I am aware. My brother in law is an exec at Boehinger Ingelheim. A new drug is costly to develop. What the quote points at, however, is an attitude that has led to the overpricing, because they can, of critical drugs, too many times.

@mbkriegh, there are definitely some pharma companies exploiting their position. I have Type 1 diabetes. Insulin was invented and patented in 1923. Biotech insulin is now the standard in the U.S. The patents on the first synthetic insulin expired in 2014. However, some companies use business process patents to protect their products and raise prices. It’s not illegal, but it feels icky.

@khurtwilliams Agree with you totally. One minor point. Insulin was discovered, not invented. Humans only isolated and figured out what it does but didn’t design and make it like other medicines.

@Parag correct. Insulin was discovered.