Here’s what we have for you today:
• Mark the mark
• Tesla gimmick
• French disorder
Mark Cuban on pharma
His view: “There are two key reasons for high drug costs. The first is that drug manufacturers price to value, rather than cost. Meaning, they price based on the rate they believe they can charge and the number of customers who will pay that price. This is very different from pricing based on cost (i.e. a cost-plus drug), and can mean that, especially for a drug that will have relatively few buyers (consider a drug for a rare disease), the price can be extremely high.”
The extension: Cuban adds “I should also add that this is a function of middlemen helping to set prices rather than the ultimate buyer of the meds. When the patient, government, business can remove intermediaries, prices can be set to meet the needs of the seller and patients rather than middlemen”.
His mark: On his venture at Cost Plus Drug Company that claims to eliminate the middlemen; offers low-cost, transparently-priced medications purchased directly from manufacturers and, as of 2022, accessed through its online pharmacy.
Mark Fields former Ford CEO dissects Tesla
The outlook: Mark mentioned according to Elon Musk’s comments “they’re going to sacrifice profits for growth”. Continuing “and I think the way they’re looking at it is with the market growing for EV’s pretty steadily right now, combined with the federal incentives, it’s a bit of a land grab and he wants to expand his number of vehicles in the market before a number of competitors come in.”
The reason: Mark reasons “Because there are advantages to having a larger what they call a car park – whether it’s more parts and service business, or you can sell more software features down the road, or ultimately if they ever get to autonomy.”
Discounted move: Regarding Elon’s pricing decision, Mark states “so he’s using pricing as a cudgel against the competition and you know he’s doing it because he has positive margins on EVs versus the competition, which may not”.
French toast over retirement age
Uprising: Paris have been filled with protestors for weeks as the French government began the process of raising the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64.
Unhappy with leadership: People stormed the lobby of the Paris Stock Exchange, waved union flags and set off flares inside the building while shouting “Macron resign”.
Previously: Earlier this year (2023), protestors with flairs also stormed the offices of fund manager BlackRock and luxury clothes brand LVMH (commonly known as Louis Vuitton).
Become Our Royal Supporter!
Dear readers: We are grateful for having you as our reader, and do hope you will continue to enjoy our content as we try to bring the best foot forward.
What we do: Serving our readers with quality news on what’s happening economically.