Fri, 2 Feb 2001 found The Evolution Control Committee writing:
>(and many many other countries) that's simply impossible to afford. The
>manufacture of AIDS drugs is almost identical to software -- the main cost
>is not the per unit cost; it's the cost up front of research and design of
>the drug, which must then be spread out among the cost of the individual
>doses. Each pill might only cost 50 cents, but you might spend $26,000,000
>designing and testing the drug before you manufacture the first bottle of
>them, and as a result the company charges an extra $20.00 a pill to offset
>this.
actually, that's not *Quite* true. as the article stated, a
lot of these drug companies are marking up their prices out
of pure greed. Even when you take into account the R&D costs
they are charging way too much. in many cases, the original
research was even at least partially paid for out of
government or university funded projects. in other words
YOUR TAX DOLLARS helped invent these pills that some
corporation is gouging dying aids victims with.
Software is definitely a bit different, though one could
probably find many cases where research done at a big
university lead to advances that a software company is now
benefitting from.
smh
Steev Hise, Infoserf
steevATdetritus.net http://detritus.net/steev
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