I heard recently on the news that
deaths from hepatitis C have reached an all-time high. That’s really
regrettable since there has been a cure since 2012. A 12-week course was
estimated to cost $136. The hepatitis C drug Sovaldi was hijacked, just
as Vladimir Putin hijacked democracy from Russia.
In
November 2011, Gilead paid $11 billion in cash to acquire Pharmasset
Inc., who with taxpayer money at Emory University developed the cure
drug Sovaldi. So with all the love of a shark-toothed Tasmanian devil
for those sick with hepatitis C, Gilead price-jacked the cost of the
12-week course of pills to $100,000. It’s like paying $1,000 for a
McDonald’s hamburger.
Then, with a tax loophole big
enough to drive a freight train through, our Congress allowed Gilead to
avoid millions in taxes by using a perverted inversion to an Irish
subsidiary. All I can do is repeat an old country song by George Jones
and Tammy Wynette: “God’s Gonna Get ‘Cha for That.”
Gilead needs to take a lessons from Jonas Salk, who in 1955 protected millions of children from polio at a low cost.
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