Capitalizing a Cure : How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at [www.luminosoa.org](https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.111). __Capitalizing a Cure__ takes us into the struggle over accessing a medical breakthrough to investigate the power of finance over business, biomedicine, and public health. When sofosbuvir-based medicines launched in 2013, they promised a cure for millions of patients worldwide with hepatitis C. But their sticker shock—the drug was dubbed "the $1,000-a-day pill"—intensified a global debate over the pricing of new medicines. Weaving extensive historical research with insights from political economy and science and technology studies, Victor Roy demystifies an oft-missed dynamic in this debate: the reach of financialized capitalism into how medicines are made, priced, and valued. His account travels between public and private labs, Wall Street and corporate boardrooms, public health meetings and health centers to trace the ways sofosbuvir-based medicines became financial assets dominated by strategies of speculation and extraction at the expense of access and care. Provocative and sobering, this book illuminates the harmful impact of allowing financial markets to supersede democracy and human health and points to the necessary work of building more equitable futures. Capitalizing a Cure takes readers into the struggle over a medical breakthrough to investigate the power of finance over business, biomedicine, and public health. When curative treatments for hepatitis C launched in 2013, sticker shock over their prices intensified the global debate over access to new medicines. Weaving historical research with insights from political economy and science and technology studies, Victor Roy demystifies an oft-missed dynamic in this debate: the reach of financialized capitalism into how medicines are made, priced, and valued. Roy's account moves between public and private labs, Wall Street and corporate board rooms, and public health meetings and health centers to trace the ways in which curative medicines became financial assets dominated by strategies of speculation and extraction at the expense of access and care. Provocative and sobering, this book illuminates the harmful impact of allowing financial markets to determine who heals and who suffers and points to the necessary work of building more equitable futures. “An important voice on the links between finance and health ecosystems, Victor Roy makes a valuable contribution to building an economy that is based on providing health for all.” -- Mariana Mazzucato, author of The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy and Chair of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All “This book is a riveting read that will strike fear in the heart of anybody who cares about the right to health or thinks that the drive for profits should not supersede democracy or human need.” -- Salmaan Keshavjee, author of Blind Spot: How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Global Health “The best piece of nonfiction I have read in a long time. This book offers a fantastic, relevant, and necessary case study to understand how the financialization of the economy has affected the organization of industrial sectors.” -- Marc-André Gagnon, Professor of Public Policy and Political Economy, Carleton University Cover Title Copyright Contents Chronology of Key Events Preface Introduction Risk, Value, and the Politics of Justification in the Drug Affordability Crisis Diagnostic Blind Spots in the Price of a Cure The Missing Diagnosis: Financialization Opening the Black Box of Price and Value: Capital, Assets, and Power A Sociological Account: The Case of Sofosbuvir-Based Treatments Chapter Outlines 1. Capitalizing Science Overcoming a Technological Hurdle: The Replicon Tool and an Entrepreneurial State The Triple Helix: Public and Private Science in the Launch of Pharmasset Sofosbuvir as an Asset and a Relay Race of Financialized Capital Pharm(asset) 2. Capitalizing Drugs Life Science amid Shareholder Power Chasing the Golden Snitch, and a Hepatitis C Gold Rush The Cannibalizing Company: Following Gilead’s Hepatitis C Money From R&D to M&A and Buybacks 3. Capitalizing Health Health as a Financial Asset: Setting and Justifying a $1,000-a-day Price for a Cure Rationing versus Public Health: The Politics of Value and the Crisis of Treatment Access The Patient Cliff: The Limits of a Cure as an Asset Pharma(value) 4. From Financialization to Public Purpose for Health When Medicines are Financialized: Mechanisms, Mystifications, and Outcomes Toward a Public-Purpose System Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix Notes References Index "Capitalizing a Cure takes us into the struggle over accessing a medical breakthrough to investigate the power of finance over business, biomedicine, and public health. When sofosbuvir-based medicines launched in 2013, they promised a cure for millions of patients worldwide with hepatitis C. But their sticker shock-the drug was dubbed "the $1,000-a-day pill"-intensified a global debate over the pricing of new medicines. Weaving extensive historical research with insights from political economy and science and technology studies, Victor Roy demystifies an oft-missed dynamic in this debate: the reach of financialized capitalism into how medicines are made, priced, and valued. His account travels between public and private labs, Wall Street and corporate boardrooms, public health meetings and health centers to trace the ways sofosbuvir-based medicines became financial assets dominated by strategies of speculation and extraction at the expense of access and care. Provocative and sobering, this book illuminates the harmful impact of allowing financial markets to supersede democracy and human health and points to the necessary work of building more equitable futures"-- Provided by publisher A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at (https://luminosoa.org/site/) www.luminosoa.org . Capitalizing a Cure takes readers into the struggle over a medical breakthrough to investigate the power of finance over business, biomedicine, and public health. When curative treatments for hepatitis C launched in 2013, sticker shock over their prices intensified the global debate over access to new medicines. Weaving historical research with insights from political economy and science and technology studies, Victor Roy demystifies an oft-missed dynamic in this debate: the reach of financialized capitalism into how medicines are made, priced, and valued. Roy’s account moves between public and private labs, Wall Street and corporate board rooms, and public health meetings and health centers to trace the ways in which curative medicines became financial assets dominated by strategies of speculation and extraction at the expense of access and care. Provocative and sobering, this book illuminates the harmful impact of allowing financial markets to determine who heals and who suffers and points to the necessary work of building more equitable futures. A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at(http://www.luminosoa.org) www.luminosoa.org . Capitalizing a Cure takes readers into the struggle over a medical breakthrough to investigate the power of finance over business, biomedicine, and public health. When curative treatments for hepatitis C launched in 2013, sticker shock over their prices intensified the global debate over access to new medicines. Weaving historical research with insights from political economy and science and technology studies, Victor Roy demystifies an oft-missed dynamic in this the reach of financialized capitalism into how medicines are made, priced, and valued. Roys account moves between public and private labs, Wall Street and corporate board rooms, and public health meetings and health centers to trace the ways in which curative medicines became financial assets dominated by strategies of speculation and extraction at the expense of access and care. Provocative and sobering, this book illuminates the harmful impact of allowing financial markets to determine who heals and who suffers and points to the necessary work of building more equitable futures. A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn moreat www.luminosoa.org. Capitalizing a Cure takes readersinto the struggle over a medical breakthrough to investigate thepower of finance over business, biomedicine, and public health.When curative treatments for hepatitis C launched in 2013, stickershock over their prices intensified the global debate over accessto new medicines. Weaving historical research with insights frompolitical economy and science and technology studies, Victor Roydemystifies an oft-missed dynamic in this debate: the reach offinancialized capitalism into how medicines are made, priced, andvalued. Roy's account moves between public and private labs, WallStreet and corporate board rooms, and public health meetings andhealth centers to trace the ways in which curative medicines becamefinancial assets dominated by strategies of speculation andextraction at the expense of access and care. Provocative andsobering, this book illuminates the harmful impact of allowingfinancial markets to determine who heals and who suffers and pointsto the necessary work of building more equitable futures