Hedge fund manager the Rev. Emmanuel Lemelson believes today’s drug pricing controversies have come about as a result of the economic policies that have been in place over the past decade. Lemelson believes drug prices are currently in a bubble just like any other economic bubble.
“In hindsight, the simple machinations of greed are easy to see, but while caught up in the spirit of the times, that is to say, while those at the top (the engineer of bubbles) are reaping huge benefits, and those at the bottom buy into a promise of future windfall profits, it is somehow invisible – as it has been said, ‘though they have eyes, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear,’” Lemelson wrote.
He raised the question of what could have happened if Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine, had behaved in the same manner as the CEOs of Turing, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc VRX and Mylan NV MYL.
“Imagine for a moment the CEOs of these companies sitting down to share ideas with Jonas Salk — what would that conversation look like?”
Lemelson ended his message for drug companies and investors by quoting Proverbs 11:24 — “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.”
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