Wednesday Writs: Mini Edition
WW1: The US Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of a Georgia law which requires defendants facing the death penalty to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are intellectually disabled in order to be spared execution. Those who drafted the law said they made a mistake by including the “beyond a reasonable doubt” language, but the state seeks to kill Rodney Young anyway for murdering his ex-girlfriend’s son in 2012. In most states, a defendant need only prove his mental disability as “more likely than not.” The Court will decide whether Georgia is violating their holding in Atkins v. Virginia, a 2002 case which held that the intellectually disabled could not be put to death. That was a 6-3 decision, with Rehnquist, Thomas, and Scalia dissenting, and O’Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer joining Justice Stevens’ majority opinion.
WW2: Legal wrangling is ramping up over the government’s use of the Sarbane-Oxley Act to prosecute January 6th rioters as trials are set to begin soon. Sarbane-Oxley was passed in 2002 to curb financial crimes and fraud, but contained a provision relating to obstruction of official proceedings. Defense attorneys say the Act is meant to prosecute those who impede investigations, not “ceremonial” proceedings such as the election certification.
WW3: ICYMI: Elizabeth Holmes has been convicted on 4 of 11 federal charges related to her Theranos blood testing company. She faces up to 20 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and restitution.
WW4: Kentucky has passed a law capping insulin copays at $30 for a month’s supply of the drug, $5 less than the cap proposed in the Build Back Better plan. No word yet on which if any states will follow suit, but it does provoke optimism.
WW5: The personal library of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is going on auction this month, in case you’re wondering what to get me as a late Christmas/early birthday gift.
WW6: A New Jersey lawyer has hung his shingle in the Metaverse.
WW7: I can’t event explain this. You’ll just have to read it for yourself.
WW7: What is it with celebrities and bar exams recently? First Kim Kardashian, and now this. Question from ignorance: if you pass the full-blown bar exam without attending law school — which Kardashian has not, yet — are you legally allowed to practice law?Report
There are a handful of states where you can take the bar exam and practice law without attending law school, California among them:
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/can-you-take-the-bar-exam-without-going-to-law-schoolReport
You can in California, at least. Unlike this nitwit, Kim’s path is legit.
https://ordinary-times.com/2019/04/10/kim-k-esq-and-the-merits-of-an-unconventional-legal-education/Report
Is the low pass rate in California because the exam is especially hard or because more morons take it?Report
WW2: Yes. Set this precedent. It will be glorious.Report
You have to say ‘Glorious’ like Varvatos Vex.Report
I don’t know who that is.
This looks pretty good!Report
Nick Offerman shines when he’s allowed to chew on the scenery.Report
I look forward to the “Yates v. United States” sequel.Report
RE: WW4
Will be interesting to see if Kentucky has massive insulin shortages after this goes into effect.Report
If they do, I’m betting it’ll be artificial. The cost to produce is in the range of $3-$6. There is no R&D overhead to speak of, or any marketing overhead either, so getting 5x-10x times your cost to produce back is a real healthy profit.
https://www.businessinsider.com/insulin-prices-could-be-much-lower-and-drug-makers-would-still-make-healthy-profits-2018-9Report
Consider the dire fate of the last person to try and reduce costs of insulin..
I would not be so sanguine about law and order.Report
uhhhhhhh
lol
“biosimilar manufacturing expenses were not individually considered, such as capital expenditures, quality assurance and control, registration costs, and costs for adhering to manufacturing regulations.”
so
if you don’t consider the thing that’s so expensive it stops other companies producing insulin then yeah, I guess producing insulin isn’t that expensiveReport
$30 seems like a fair price then.Report
(they aren’t talking about Novalog)Report
Doesn’t really matter, does it?
Even when you factor in all that other stuff, insulin is cheap to produce, so cheap that it’s probably marginally profitable. Marginally enough that I get why Pharma wants to charge what the market will bear. Otherwise, those production lines could be put to a much more profitable use. Problem is, this isn’t Advil, it’s something a person needs to live, so the market will bear a lot.
There are lots of drugs like this (EpiPens, certain AIDs drugs, birth control, etc.).
This is one of those things where some good old fashioned tax incentives could do a lot of good, but certain political groups seems allergic to letting a big company (or even a little company that happens to be a Pharma company) have any such thing, even if it enables a public good.Report
I always enjoy linking to this Slate Star Codex essay about the price of insulin.Report
“Doesn’t really matter, does it?”
…yes, it actually matters quite a lot. It matters the way that the difference between bunker fuel and aviation gas matters. (and the “$25 a vial” insulin has been available at Wal-Mart for years, without a prescription even.)Report
IDK about Wal-Mart, but there’s an on-line place that sells insulin for $38 a vial.
That’s with a few seconds of search, not a deep dive. Presumably that’s without insurance. With insurance it’s hard to say, but mine pays for the bulk of similar drugs (i.e. drugs they want me to take).
https://www.diabeticstreatment.com/vda-medical-0169-1833-02-0169-1837-02-insulin-novolin-grpReport
It’s one of those things where, if we had a market (as opposed to regulatory capture), the rate would be FAR less.Report
YesReport
Note the bait and switch over “human insulin”. Likely referring to the stuff used prior to Humalog, which is considerably riskier for diabetics.
Humalog as multiple competitors (Novalog comes immediately to mind) as well as biosimilars. Somehow, they’ve all increased in price ten-fold.Report
Worth noting humalog debuted in 1994 or so at 35 a vial. It represented years of R&D and was a massive, massive improvement over regular human insulin. Doctors all but threw their patients at it, because the risks of hypoglycemia were so much lower (if you mess up humalog you were likely to end up with your blood sugar too high, which is not great but causes damage over time. Previously if you messed up with human insulin, you were more likely to end up too low — which is where comas, ambulances, and possibly death awaited.)
Patients on humalog were no longer forced into incredibly rigid meal or snack schedules to avoid going hypoglycemic, resulting in better and healthier patients with lower risks. It was a fantastic step forward. They made serious profits — including paying back their R&D costs — rapidly.
And Humalog stayed about that price right until it got a competitor, and then a weird thing happened — both slowly started increasing in price. In lockstep. As generics came out, they were always about 70% of the price of their name brand, and again prices would increase in lockstep.
Now Humalog costs — in America only — about 10 times what it did in 1994 (inflation says it should be about twice as much). It has multiple competitors and generics. They’re all that high.
And it’s dirt cheap to produce. ALL forms of modern insulin are made the same way — genetically modified single-cell organisms excrete it. It’s closer to brewing medical grade beer in many ways. Any half-decent lab can modify the e coli or yeast for you, and the feedstock is cheap as are the processes. There are no bottlenecks in supply, and expanding production is not difficult at ALL by pharmaceutical standards.
Given the facts, there’s really only one reason a single country would see a ten-fold increase in a good despite multiple competitors and no underlying raw material or manufacturing bottlenecks: Price fixing.
(Unless someone wants to argue that the creators of Humalog had a fun plan where they’d make back all their R&D costs 25 years after it debuted, when it had heavy competition. Given every drug in creation seems to be part of a price fixing scheme in America, from prescription stuff to stuff like albuterol and even Anusol — seriously, 200+ bucks for a dosage of steroids in suppository form that goes for 20 bucks in England OTC . That’s WITH insurance. Prescription drug pricing is, bluntly, broken in America)Report
are you talking about the advertised retail price, or are you talking about what people actually pay?Report
“Artificial” may not be the right word. Companies can make more profit by selling that drug in other states, they will try to limit Kentucky to it’s actual market by selling it what it really needs. You’ll instantly have people buy “too much” insulin in Kentucky and try to sell it in other states.
We might be looking at the creation of a black market.Report
See DDs comments below regarding who can buy it.Report
nah
* It’s $30 for a 30-day supply, and most plans already cap the copay at $50; less money, sure, but not dramatically less, not to the point that you’ll have people crossing the border to get cheap Kentucky insulin.
* It applies to mail-order as well as in-pharmacy, so it’s not as though the local shops will suddenly be cleared out
* It only applies to Kentucky residents with Kentucky-state insurance plans, if you’re from out of the state you get charged your plan’s standard (as I said, usually $50).Report
oh, and: you can’t just keep getting 30-day supplies over and over, your plan only authorizes one 30-day supply every 30 days, if you want to get more you pay full retail.Report
Colorado truck driver update: Governor Polis reduced the sentence to 10 years.Report
WW7: This seems like just a huge grift and things she thought she could get away with stating because no one listens to the professionalsReport
Technically, it’s not “Practicing Without A License” if you type IANAL at the beginning of your brief.
I found that out by doing my own legal research online.Report
She’ll use “I’m becoming a lawyer” for as much fame as she can, then she’ll pivot to something else. In between those she’ll get more bad plastic surgery and/or release a sex tape.
So no license, no “practicing”, and no classes or even studying. She’s not serious.Report
I’m just glad celebrities aren’t trying to sell themselves as engineers or MDs.Report
We need a sarcasm font :^)Report
We really do. Or at least a tag.Report
The title of the sex tape will, of course, be “I Am Not A Lawyer.”Report
“I, Am Not A Lawyer”, which will abbreviate to “I, ANAL”.
FTFYReport
WW6: Is “Grungo” pronounced GRUN-jo or GRUN-go?Report
I just call him Baby Yoda.Report