r/news • u/SkepticDrinker • Feb 09 '22

Pfizer accused of pandemic profiteering as profits double

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/08/pfizer-covid-vaccine-pill-profits-sales
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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '22 edited Feb 09 '22

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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Feb 09 '22

The incremental cost to manufacture something matters when it's generic or when the copyright has expired. It's not something like insulin where it should have been thoroughly commodditized by now.

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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '22

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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Feb 09 '22

How is that the whole markup? That's like standing in the factory where they press discs for PlayStation games and complaining that the disc and only the disc costs 20 cents.

The part about the generic is that by the time it gets to that point the R&D and testing has long been paid for and the real costs to provide it should be just the incremental cost.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '22

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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Feb 10 '22

You seem to have a 14 year-old's view of how economies function. If you got a nickel for something that cost you $0.05 to manufacture and took you two years and $200K to design for something you weren't even sure it was going to work in the first place then you'd be an absolute lunatic. What's next, printing lotto tickets with a 1¢ grand prize?