Ask HN: State-level crowdfunding for developing generic medicines – why not?
Based on these assumptions (using insulin as an example):<p>- Manufacturers have increased the price of insulin by ~250% over the last 10 years [1]<p>- They also exploit the patent system to prevent the production of a &#x27;generic&#x27; insulin [2][3]<p>- OpenInsulin is crowdfunding&#x2F;crowdsourcing the development of an open-source, unpatented insulin [4]<p>- Medicare spent $13B on insulin in 2017, up 850% from 2007 [5][6]<p>It appears that:<p>- Government spending on insulin will only continue to increase (exponentially?)<p>- If OpenInsulin are successful, insulin will become available for a fraction of the price<p>- There is a VERY strong financial incentive for governments to invest heavily in the development of generic medicines and projects like OpenInsulin<p>Imagine if several governments got together and put 2% of their insulin spend ($260M p&#x2F;a for the US alone[5]) into these kind of projects. Regardless of the contribution to humanity, surely it just makes loads of financial sense.<p>Does anyone know if this is already being done? Or WHY it isn&#x27;t already being done? Are there any peverse incentives that are preventing this kind of open-source medical utopia?<p>Sources:<p>1: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.businessinsider.com.au&#x2F;insulin-price-increased-last-decade-chart-2019-9?r=US&amp;IR=T<p>2: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;undark.org&#x2F;2021&#x2F;06&#x2F;16&#x2F;how-patent-extensions-keep-some-drug-costs-high&#x2F;<p>3: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.healthline.com&#x2F;diabetesmine&#x2F;why-is-there-no-generic-insulin#Patent-system-discourages-new-insulin<p>4: &lt;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;openinsulin.org&#x2F;&gt;<p>5: &lt;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kff.org&#x2F;medicare&#x2F;issue-brief&#x2F;how-much-does-medicare-spend-on-insulin&gt;<p>6: This isn&#x27;t just because of price hikes - diabetes is becoming more common as well.