a) You create a product and you sell it in order to make a profit.
b) someone else spends more money than they make and finds themselves in fiscal ruin
c) That same someone else decides that you should give them your product at a loss because healthcare is that important and you’re just mean if you don’t.
Novo Nordisk is pulling an insulin product out of Greece after Greece decided they should drop their price for it by 25% resulting in a loss for them.
Pavlos Panayotacos, whose 10-year-old daughter Nephele has diabetes, has written to Novo Nordisk’s chairman to criticise the move. “As an economist I realize the importance of making a profit, but healthcare is more than just the bottom line,” he wrote.
“As you well may know, Greece is presently in dire economic and social straits, and you could not have acted in a more insensitive manner at a more inopportune time.”
The Greek diabetes association was more robust, describing the Danes’ actions as “brutal blackmail” and “a violation of corporate social responsibility”.
The Danish chairman, Lars Sorensen, wrote to Mr Panayotacos stressing that it was “the irresponsible management of finances by the Greek government which puts both you and our company in this difficult position”.
I love the Danish chairman’s reply. “You put both me and you in this position!”
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