Prozac

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Pity Poor Pharma

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Mexico has just passed a law that bans American agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration from acting freely in the country.  This was a response to the US arrest of Salvador Cienfuegos, former Defense Minister of the Mexican Government, on charges of drug trafficking. 

What’s going on in Mexico? The drugs gangs are all at each others’ throats, fighting over an ever-diminishing pie.  There are now only 6 American states left where marijuana is illegal - in all the rest it is legal or allowed for medical purposes. The impact on Mexico’s drug gangs has been horrendous.  Almost at a stroke the lucrative American market has collapsed. 

With the marijuana market gone the Mexican drug gangs had to start pushing Fentanyl even though it meant competing with American legal pharmaceutical companies, but boy is it profitable.  A kilo of heroin costs $6000 and can be sold for $80,000, a mere 13 times profit.  A kilo of Fentanyl costs $4150 per kilo and sells for $1,600,000 as it is 100 times stronger than heroin. That’s a stonking 385 times profit.  As a mere organic grocer like me, who’d go out of business if I aimed for a 2 times profit those figures are pretty impressive.  Just think if vitamins were that profitable.

But to a legal pharmaceutical company those figures are pathetic.  Xanax costs 2p to make 1 mg and sells for £100 per mg.  That’s 5000 times profit for Pfizer.  Prozac costs 9p to make 20mg and sells for £185 per 20g. That’s 2000 times profit for Eli Lilly. 

Bear in mind, however, that the manufacturing cost doesn’t include all the research on the drug and then ‘educating’ doctors in how to prescribe it and the endless fines for illegal marketing and health care fraud.  Pfizer holds the record for the largest criminal fine - $2.3 billion in 2009.

The great thing about being a pharmaceutical company is that you can take the occasional billion-dollar fine in your stride.  Even better, you never go to jail.  Mexican pharma-dealers are always at risk of a prison sentence for their wrongdoings, something corporate pharma executives never have to worry about.  They just pass the cost of fines on to their shareholders.

But legalised marijuana has had a damaging effect on the sales of opioids and alcohol and antidepressants.  Potheads drink less booze and actively avoid opioids like Fentanyl or oxycontin and would rather take CBD than take an antidepressant. 

Marijuana legalisation’s been bad enough for the drug business but worse challenges are on the horizon.  In November 2020 Oregon decriminalised all drugs.  Instead of spending $375 million a year arresting and prosecuting drug users, Oregon is now going to open a dozen drug treatment centres to help addicts get well.  With $100 million a year coming in from the tax on legal marijuana sales they can afford it.  For blacks this is particularly good news as, even though drug use is no higher among black people, a heck of a lot more of them are stopped, searched and arrested for possession - drugs are the leading cause of jail time for people of colour.

So who else is making money out of illegal drugs?  You and me. ‘Our’ UK Government-backed Angel CoFund has shares in Small Pharma, who are raising £12 million on the Toronto Stock Exchange to research DMT, the most powerful psychedelic of all.  If they did the research here they’d go to jail,  so they will do it legally in Canada.  The Canadians are already spearheading the use of psilocybin from magic mushrooms - a couple of doses and depression is alleviated that would otherwise require a lifetime of antidepressant use.  More bad news for the makers of Prozac and Xanax - and doctors and pharmacists.

Luckily the pharmaceutical companies have harvested £6 billion from governments for their coronavirus vaccine research.  Making vaccines is usually bad business - you give someone a shot and they don’t need another one.  But lavish subsidies make it worthwhile.

Just think if the cash that has been spent on vaccine research had gone to protect people in care homes and making sure everyone’s vitamin C and D and zinc levels were adequate.  Prevention sounds nice, but profitable?  Forget it.

 

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Today’s Observer - granddaughter Saba’s writing described as “sensual, witty, audacious, belligerent dangerous brilliance.”
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