Latif Nasser

It was from 1957 until 1996 that a second drug came along.

That's how long it takes to develop a good drug?

In that interim, there were over 70 drugs that were tried and failed.

I feel like I don't give it enough credit because that just astounded me.

It's very, very hard.

And that, according to Leonard, is one of the reasons why prices are just going to keep going up.

But sooner or later, this system is going to fall apart.

And at what point does society say there isn't an infinite number of dollars that we can commit to our health care system?

It's funny because I had this interesting reaction to the word society because all of a sudden I thought like why is – not like a crazy death panel way, but I thought why is society involved in my conversation with my doctor about if I want to take this drug that may give me another month and a half of life?

Why is society involved?

Because you're not paying.

unless you have hidden resources I'm aware of, probably couldn't afford $10,000 to $15,000 a month in drug bills.

Someone else has to pay that.

Obviously, he says, it's your insurance.

I mean, say you're part of a policy that has 1,000 members.

Let's say that the premium for that is $100.

So we got $100, 1,000 people.

We got ourselves $100,000.

Okay.

So we now have $100,000 to take care of that 1,000 people.