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Comment by jensnockert | Hacker News Reader

It would be interesting to see how much money was lost or gained by Bayer based on this. I assume that usage might go up by at least a factor 20 in India (and their production costs go down) so those 6% might actually be a fair deal in the long run.

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Fewer than 200 Indians used the drug in 2011; impact on sales should be minimal [1]. Bayer's concern is probably the export of these generics (illegally) to other places where it sources more sales from.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/business/global/india-over...

Only 200 people bought it because the price of the drugs is ridiculously high. Even people who are dying would not have been able to afford it.

remember that Bayer won't have to manufactor it, someone else does. They get a cut (6%) without having to do any work

They already did the overwhelming majority of the work. Developing that kind of stuff is expensive. I've seen estimates of ~100MM USD quoted for the discovery of a new drug.

As others put it, the manufacture of simple chemicals in the quantities involved in pharmaceuticals is effectively free. As in, give me 100k and I'll be able to make enough of the drug for the whole world for the next hundred years. The packaging of most pharmaceuticals is more expensive than the manufacture of their contents.

The cost is overwhelmingly in R&D -- finding the chemicals, proving it doesn't kill people, and proving it actually does something useful.

Don't forget a huge expense: Battling lawsuits (mostly frivolous) from users of the drug and potentially paying out huge settlements.

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