Megacorp dystopia memes

big pharma rap

Robot in south korea commits suicide because it got bored of cleaning up trash

"Let them eat Flakes: Kellogg’s CEO says poor families should consider ‘cereal for dinner’"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/27/kelloggs-ceo-cereal-for-dinner

Sometimes the flavor of the orange juice I buy changes and I wonder what's different. It's not just the oranges being more/less sour. I worry that there had been some sort of mistake at the factory, and thousands of orange juice containers had been contaminated with something that won't kill you, but is certainly unhealthy in a way that shaves days off of the end of your life.

Mass production uses massive vats and silos that aren't accompanied by a human's presence like how the machines are in, say, a small bakery. They aren't monitored, and a mistake on the production line like pigeons getting into a grains silo doesn't kill the company, it is only fixed after several shipments of pigeon infused bread has made it to stores.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/09/ftc-sues-prescription-drug-middlemen-artificially-inflating-insulin-drug-prices
They did finally get around to that! Took long enough...

As a direct consequence of insulin price slashes - companies stopped making insulin.

There's been a shortage of Fiasp (insulin aspart) since July - it was supposed to be over by September. That deadline has now been extended to January. Fiasp is the fastest acting, (formerly premium) insulin on the market - it isn't complex (its just insulin aspart with some niacin and an amino acid) but it is patented - there is no generic.

Levemir is discontinued.
Insulin glargine/lantus is discontinued.

There are constant rolling shortages of most insulins on the market - you simply can't get them sometimes.

Manufacturing capacity has been diverted to ozempic and other weight loss drugs.

For a long time, I had a dream of living on a desolate mountain alone. Then, I had to start getting insulin just to stay alive. Okay, so I can't live on a desolate mountain - I have to have a pharmacy. But if SHTF there is no home remedy, there's no easy way to synth this stuff - its complex and difficult.

Shit hasn't hit the fan but they still just don't want to make it. While still having a corner on the market, patents, exclusivity deals, etc.. no other manufacturer is stepping up. The free market isn't working very well.

here's an article on market forces https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/15/discontinuing-insulin-problematic-trailing-edge-older-versions-keep-it-affordable/