Since antivirals like paxlovid and molnupiravir were approved on an emergency basis, it is likely that insurance companies and Medicare will not approve payment for these soon to be privatized medications in the future. The average American cannot afford over $700 for a 5-day supply of pills. Some Medicare recipients live off less than $1500 per month. A single course of treatment would then amount to 50% of their monthly income. The vaccines and antivirals like molnupiravir were created on the backs of taxpayers, yet these same drugs would be out of reach if privatized, adding insult to injury"or rather insult to fatal injury. Furthermore, if you multiply the cost for several family members to receive the treatment; you have an impossible choice, namely who lives"and who dies.
Biden administration did plead for more money....
In all fairness, the White House issued a fact sheet March 15, 2022, pleading with Congress to allocate more money for COVID vaccines and treatments. Click Here
The fact sheet listed the consequences if funding needs weren't met, which includes the following:
*" Inability to Secure Sufficient Booster Doses and Variant Specific Vaccines,
*Providers No Longer Able to Submit Claims for Testing, Treating, and Vaccinating the Uninsured,
*Ending the Purchase of Monoclonal Antibody Treatments, Scaling Back State/Territory Allocations,
*Halting Critical Testing, Vaccine, Treatment Efforts,
*Scaling Back Planned Purchases of Preventive Treatments for Immunocompromised,
*Reducing Ability to Rapidly Identify and Assess Emerging Variants,
*Damage to Global Vaccination and COVID-19 Treatment Efforts."
The fact sheet also states that; "...the Administration is requesting that Congress provides authority to ensure seamless access to Medicare and insurance coverage for treatments under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)." Click Here
At this point, it seems like the BIden administration was attempting to remedy the situation with more funding, but conveniently forgot about the 1980 law which is responsible for the present state of affairs that allows pharmaceutical companies to profit from drugs which were partially funded by taxpayers, namely the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980.
Bayh-Dole Act, and Section 202 ".
The Bayh-Dole Act, passed in 1980 --permits the ownership of patents resulting from federally funded research to remain with the inventors and their employers." Click HereTo quote further, "Government research grantees and their institutions now earn billions from royalties and equity interests that result from the sale or exclusive licensing of these patents." https://www.nature.com/articles/nm0616 (Source: Watanabe,T. UCLA will get hundreds of millions for rights to prostate cancer drug, LA Times (4 March 2016)
To date, the US government spends in excess of $30 billion annually funding biomedical research with taxpayer subsidies. The lack of equity in return investment to the taxpayer is appalling. In any other economic arena, such a giveaway would represent premeditated fraud, if not for the technically 'legal' cover the Bayh-Dole Act supplies.
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