Your Tax Dollars At Work

It is funny that in the US the Republicans never complain about this kind of "government intervention".

Here's a bit from the ABC News story:

Price of Preventing Premature Births Skyrockets

KV Pharma Gains Sole Rights to Drug, Ups Price by 10,000%

Preventing preterm births just got 150 times more expensive, now that KV Pharmaceuticals has gained exclusive rights to produce a progesterone shot used to prevent premature births in high-risk mothers.

Although the shot has been available in unregulated form from specialty compounding pharmacies for years for $10 a pop, the Food and Drug Administration recently granted KV Pharmaceuticals sole rights to produce the drug, which will be marketed as Makena and cost $1,500 per dose -- an estimated $30,000 in total per pregnancy.

Go read the ABC News story for more details.

Here's the point that needs to be emphasized. This is from BoingBoing:

Almost all of it is pure profit, and KV Pharma did not develop the drug or pay for its trials: the taxpayer did, via the National Institute for Health. It is said to be the only drug proven to prevent pre-term birth, and an expert cited by ABC News suggests that the profession was snookered into supporting the assignment as a quality standardization measure.

Just like the Republicans never seem to find any "problem" with Wall Street banks walking off with nearly a trillion dollars in tax payer dollars and paying billion dollar "bonuses". The Republicans think that granting a company a monopoly for work they didn't do but was done on the taxpayer's dime, is just hunky dory with the Republicans.

How do you spell C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N? Oh, and since the Democrats under Barak Obama are now in charge, I would say this is a case where the Democrats have been caught with their hand in the till as well. I just hope that the Democrat politicians who turn a blind eye to this and ignore the interests of their constituents made a really good deal. I would hate to think that the Democrats can be bought too cheaply. I'm expecting KV Pharmaceuticals' lobbyists to be putting on some lavish spreads and a lot of Democrats (and of course the Republicans) will find their Christmas stocking just bulging with moolah this Christmas!