Tag: greed

Drugmakers to raise prices of 350 drugs at start of 2023

Drugmakers are set to raise the prices of 350 drugs at the beginning of 2023.

Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca PLC, and Sanofi SA are among several drugmakers set to raise prices, according to healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors, Reuters reported. The price hikes are in response to a number of factors, mainly inflation, supply problems, and the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which will allow Medicare, the national government’s health insurance program for seniors and people with certain disabilities, to negotiate several drug prices directly starting in 2026.

Drug manufacturers usually try to avoid major price increases, as it draws the ire of the government and the public. Nevertheless, an associate firm of 3 Axis Advisors found that drugmakers raised the prices of 1,400 different drugs in 2022. Pharmaceutical companies now usually try to introduce new drugs at a high price, so further price increases won’t be needed.

“Drug makers have to take a harder look at calibrating those launch prices out of the gate … so they don’t box themselves into the point where in the future, they can’t price increase their way back into profitability,” President Antonio Ciaccia of 3 Axis Advisors told Reuters.

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Airlines Lobbying Congress To Allow Just One Pilot In The Cockpit

Airlines, in their infinite mission to balance costs, profits, and keeping planes full of passengers alive between two points, might be going a little too far in their latest attempt to cut back.

According to CBS News, the industry has been quietly lobbing Congress to allow them to use just one pilot in the cockpit instead of two, as is currently required by part 121 of the Federal Aviation Regulations.

The airlines claim it would quickly solve staffing issues caused by the ongoing pilot shortage, and say that technology has improved to the point where it would be perfectly safe to do so.

There’s language in a new bill now introduced in Congress — the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill — asking the Federal Aviation Administration to reconsider part 121 and to allow the use of a single pilot operation, first in cargo aircraft. 

Not surprisingly, airline pilots are loudly protesting this idea, claiming that it would diminish a safety discipline and culture that has been responsible for the safest 25 years in commercial aviation in the history of aviation. Pilots unions argue it’s all about the airlines saving money and could compromise safety. -CBS News

 Unions have pointed to several examples of emergency situations in which two pilots were necessary – such as the “Miracle on the Hudson,” when pilots Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles worked together to glide a US Airways flight down to New York’s Hudson river after it hit a flock of Canadian geese on takeoff, saving all 150 passengers and crew.

Meanwhile, 10 days ago an American Eagle flight from Chicago to Columbus had an emergency when one of the two pilots became incapacitated. The co-pilot was able to gain control of the plane, declare an emergency, and safely land back in O’Hare.

The pilot later died at the hospital.

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Barcoding Nature: The Largest Global Land Grab In Human History

“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” — Aldo Leopold

Have you ever heard of a natural asset company or NAC in short (and we’re not referring here to the glutathione precursor, N-acetyl-cysteine)? It won’t surprise us if you haven’t. We’ve only recently come across the term ourselves and we’re coming to the view that it may facilitate the biggest corporate land grab in recent history. That’s if we, the people, don’t put a stop to it.

If you believe that Nature should never become a commodity that’s bought and sold by a powerful few, read on. The fact that the moneyed minority feel that they have a right to effectively barcode Nature is quite breathtaking in its greed and arrogance. Though not all that surprising when you look at what’s been happening over the past 2 years. We really are being called to ‘clean house’ on so many levels.

We’ve created an infographic (see below) to summarise the plans for the exploitation of what’s now being termed, Nature’s Economy. You can see at a glance the price tag that’s been placed on her head and why suddenly traditional philanthropy — based on giving — has been declared ‘a total failure’ and is being replaced by ‘investment philanthropy’. You’ll be familiar with the names involved in kicking off this new kind of non-giving (aka taking) philanthropy. If you were wondering how philanthropic investing could be declared a failure, look no further than André Hoffmann, the vice chairman of pharmaceutical giant, Roche.

Please download and share as far and wide as you can. This is a message that needs to take flight rapidly.

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Yes, BlackRock’s Home-Buying Spree Should Concern You

The general public doesn’t normally look into companies like BlackRock, the largest asset management firm on the planet with over $9 trillion in assets. That’s higher than the GDP of every nation in the world other than the United States and China. We don’t normally looking into them because they’re invisible to “normies” like us. They don’t advertise or have their name on a sports stadium like most other major companies. They’re happy to stay as under the radar as is possible for a company so huge.

But some in the general public is paying attention now following the resurfacing of an April WSJ article that chronicles BlackRock and other money institutions buying up single-family homes as quickly as they can at rates higher than the average homebuyer is willing to pay. They’re buying them up at a premium, and that should concern everyone whether you’re in the market to buy a home or not.

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