BIG BIG NEWS: THE STOP TB PARTNERSHIP HAS ANNOUNCED SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATIONS WITH JOHNSON & JOHNSON TO MAKE GENERIC BEDAQUILINE AVAILABLE IN ALMOST EVERY COUNTRY WITH A HIGH BURDEN OF TUBERCULOSIS: www.stoptb.org/news/global-drug-facility-update-access-to-bedaquiline But we are still waiting on them to understand the details. Ask them for the details: Tell them on facebook: facebook.com/jnj/ Tell them on instagram: instagram.com/jnj/?hl=en This is an incredible day. Obviously TREMENDOUS work still to do in improving access and diagnostics in tuberculosis treatment, but wow wow wow bedaquiline is going to be so much more affordable in almost every country. (There are a few countries where there is complexity, but even there rays of hope have emerged in the last day.) THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT FOR TB SURVIVORS. -John
I want to contextualize John's point made at 3:30. I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana and I can tell you (even though Ghana's economy is in its own unique rough patch) the price of $1.50 for one pill (in a several months long treatment plan) is absolutely outrageous for most people living in West Africa. $1.50 translates to about 17 Ghana Cedi. 17 cedi is enough to buy 17 balls of kenkey, which can comfortably feed a child in my village for about three days. It's enough to buy half a month supply of condoms or one pack of menstrual pads. It's enough to buy a seat on a bus to take you over 25 miles. It's enough to buy three pills of a dewormer I'm currently taking because people get many other diseases they don't plan to. 25 cedi is the price of a health insurance coverage for four years, and even that many villagers don't see as a worthwhile investment because money is very, very tight. People would wince at having to pay 17 cedi once for a drug, let alone having to pay for 4-6 pills every day for several months. Many people in this part of the world choose to tough it out and die seemingly abruptly, and it's largely due to the cost of medical treatment.
Thank you for your personal insight. This makes it much more real, as a person in a region where Tuberculosis isn't prevalent, in understanding just how expensive and prohibitively inaccessible it is.
Thank you for the much needed context!! Something that is a burdensome cost to low income people in places like the US can be downright cost prohibitive in the global south, and people may not realize that without putting it into terms like this. Also thank you for your work with the Peace Corp!
As someone who used to work for J&J, I can confirm the upper management always prioritizes profits over people, including thier own employees which is why thier turnover is ridiculous if you look into it. So yes, most of the employees also wish thier corporate overlords gave a single care about actually saving lives, but have very little power to make that happen. I left a few years ago and have zero interest in ever working for them again. It's also really difficult to boycott them because they own an INSANE number of brands (seriously things you would never guess) and you can't just stop taking your meds.
That's what frustrating about most industries. It's almost impossible to vote with your wallet because they basically have a monopoly on so many products. I'd love to avoid buying from unethical companies, but then that leaves almost no options. Between Nestle, J&J, and General Mills, they basically own the entire grocery store.
@@GigaBoost one of the worst aspects of the system is this, corporations work that way and HAVE to work that way. Mgmt is mandated to work in interests of shareholders, who will, in turn, expect short term profits. A lot of shares are owned by investment funds and banks that buy those shares with money from many different parties, This maximally dilutes the stake for everyone and makes the human aspect of "owning" a company so far removed that it is impossible to find someone to care. This is why regulations are so important. But then, mgmt will (again, in best shareholder interest) lobby politicians to keep regulations at bay.
I heard it said recently that "poverty doesn't exist because we can't help the poor. It exists because we can't satisfy the rich." And it has never felt more applicable than it does in this scenario. Price gouging life saving medication simply so the people who least need it can squeeze more out of people who can least afford it, is the most deplorable thing I think a human can do. J&J are definitely gonna be hearing from me. Thanks for the heads up, John.
An influencer using their voice to save lives. This is what I’ve been waiting for. Thank you. Let’s all come together. We have too! Hopefully by, commenting, and liking the algorithm will pick this shit up faster.
And let's keep doing it. What better community than a group of *nerd* fighters to fight for reform? Heck, let's take on climate change and other challenges next.
My wife spent time in South America and contracted TB. She took life saving medications and is alive today. Everyone deserves access to life saving medication.
@@LucielStarz123 that's the governments or your insurances job. we all pay collectively into it in order that all of us receive care when we need it. it's beneficial to care about others in your community and it promotes general progress and wellbeing, it's low iq behavior to not care about others. low empathy they call it. and no, not everyone has access to the drug. public tax funds were used in the research of this drug in order to produce life saving drugs for the public. johnson and johnson would literally prefer to generate as much profit as they can get away with while they legally can than just selling a life saving pill at a reasonable price. even if it was expensive, insurance would cover it- but if its so ungodly expensive that they wont, which seems to be the case, it drives people to poverty trying to get the medicine they need. paying a huge company that literally wouldnt even notice if you stole an entire truck loads worth of their medicine and used it at home for the rest of your life.
Год назад+172
@@LucielStarz123 You missed the point. That medication was provided by public health, that's why she was able to take it and live to tell the story.
After telling this to my mother, I learned that my grandmother had TB. She was privileged to have US healthcare. She was a nurse and I’m sure she would have agreed with you.
My grandfather had TB and survived, because they found a nodule of walled-off TB in his lung, years later. He didn’t really know when he might’ve gotten it. But since he lived in the US he would’ve been fine if it flared up.
As a person who is "privileged" to have American healthcare, I would greatly like to use the insurance I am forced to pay for to go to the doctor, but I can't afford it. It took me two months and a government agency to get my rx covered and I am sick of clawing for less than the minimum. The way it is now, if I get TB, I won't be getting treatment either. Maybe everyone could be a little less greedy.
Under no circumstances should LIFE SAVING technology be privatized. Life should not be a privilege. Privatization like this is some dystopian stuff. Thank you John for educating people and truly working for change. Your video will help save countless of lives.
Practically everything except tiktok is a lifesaving technology. Most medicines, cars, helicopters, cell phones, satellites, etc. Every pipe, brick, computer chip, door knob and for any building of a hospital, water sanitation, fire department, police, etc. should every brick and pipe and plastic be socialized because it could be used to save a life? All this sounds very nice but it is wildly idealistically naive. The patent system for pharmaceuticals needs a complete overhaul. We do not need to enact further drag down the path of corporatist/Socialist hell holes to fix this issue; that’s how we got here in the first place.
I'm originally from South Africa, where TB is a big problem. In one town where I lived, there was a whole hospital dedicated entirely to TB patients. A friend of my dad's had four sons. About five years ago, I heard that he had recently died due to TB. But before he died, he lost three of his four sons to TB. One of his sons contracted TB more than once, but the final time he caught the resistant strain and died. I hate this disease. Please give these profiteering sharks hell.
So I was coming here to say something similar. I paused on John's Venn diagram and to see South Africa in the centre breaks my heart. Looki get that Sierra Leonian Healthcare is important, but they are only a high TB burden, not all forms of TB + HIV, and I always feel like more should be said about that in these videos. I'm glad they're helping Africa, but there are so many health care systems on the continent that could use similar infrastructure.
South African here and these are facts. The youngst person I knew that died because of TB was 14 and in the region I live the disease is one of the biggest (and most expensive) burdens on the public health sector. In many cases people repeatedly get TB which leads to more drug resistant variants. It disgusting that people still die due to a CURABLE disease.
The title radiates justified angy. I approve. Edit: yep, definitely justified. Corporate greed standing in the way of progress for humaity... Nothing new, but always infuriating.
it's usually govt greed, see biden et al ukraine war, inflation skyrocketing 32 trillion debt etc, noone can afford housing and now many africans dying due to 1st world white leftists banning cheap fossil fuel energy
I will never understand how a CEO sitting in a comfortable office somewhere can make a unilateral decision that effectively condemns millions of other people to death and not feel some kind of way about it.
That's why the so many sociopaths and psychopaths make it into executive leadership roles. Shareholders have their hands clean and just need maximum profits, and the system naturally promotes people without empathy towards other humans.
CEOs are selected to give shareholders as much profit as possible. Those who have the stomach to climb the corporate ladder have way larger chances of success if they are selfish and egotistical. Our systems are shite.
Dr Hare, who created the Psychopath inventory predicted this a couple of decades ago. It turn out that corporations got the bright (sarcasm) Idea that people who were psychopaths were better at business because they were ruthless. So they started to use his inventory to select FOR psychopathy, instead of using it as he intended and weed it out. As a result, this type of behavior has increased as these people were promoted to the top of their fields. Now Psychopaths tend to self select for business, so it did not cause it, but it means that we have MANY more psychopaths in top positions than we otherwise would have. And these corporations are considered people, and are also running politics. And Dr Hare predicted a lot of this.
In 1944 my grandmother caught TB. She probably caught it working on the trolley. She unknowingly passed it onto my mother who was 2. By the time they were both diagnosed it was too late for my grandmother to be effectively treated but my mother was treated. Her mother died 9 years later from TB. Those antibiotics saved my mother's life.
Oh no that sucks. Wish people would understand just how awful and contagious it is. I was exposed as a child from my newly immigrated family from Vietnam but somehow we were lucky.
Slightly related note: this is an issue spanning further than this, insulin was LITERALLY made to be as cheap as humanly possible to manufacture, it costs so so soso little to make, and yet, this medicine that can save lives is being hoarded by one company, and the price is high because profits wouldn't be high without it. We need to get rid of private patents for medicine
I think this might be going too far, because if you create no IP-protection for these drugs you will strongly disincentivize the creation of these drugs. Hopefully we can find a middle path that incentivizes drug creation to fight diseases that don’t have a drug while also preventing situations where surplus profits are able to be chosen over people’s lives.
@@bman5257 The incentive is still there if companies are making money, which they would be even if you cut prices by 50%. The issue isn't the profit for me, the issue is why is so much excess profit necessary? Especially when we find out that those excess profits are actually NOT being put back into research. Why do company heads need to make 1000% more than the lab techs? Why is it normalized that we think certain jobs are exponentially more important than others in the same company? Each piece of the puzzle is needed to complete the picture, right? But greed is the ultimate factor, and it's supported by current practices in this country.
@@bman5257getting rid of ip law especially when it applies to medicine will not remove the incentive to innovate. Despite profit motive as a driver of change being a thoroughly debunked idea in many sectors it is even less applicable to medicine. An enormous amount of medical research is publicly funded and governments, especially the us, have the money to pay for the continued research and production of medicines to the benefit of millions of people. People have an innate desire to be productive and to help each other, without profit the people actually responsible for the research and production (the scientists, doctors, etc) would continue to produce and innovate. The only result of the profit motive in the medical sector is a few major companies withholding affordable lifesaving medication for the sake of growing the wealth of the ceo and shareholders.
I work in clinical research and am connected to one of their executive medical directors. I sent them a ping to see who on the inside I can speak with regarding this. I also submitted regarding the violation of their credo. Keep up the good fight. I am so thankful people like John exist in the world to rally people together for the health of everyone.
As a person with a very weak immune system living in Moldova ( one of the countries mentioned that the drug wont be distributed to) THANK YOU for making this video. Unfortunetely here in Moldova prices keep going up on medicine to the point where you seriously cannot afford them. We cant let big companies capitalize on the health of millions of people so I urge everyone to PLEASE listen and send letters to j&j, otherwise so many people will have to suffer , we already live in a poor country, people need access to health care
I live in Australia with multiple chronic illnesses at age 24 and I know how lucky I am to have rebated access to all specialist doctors I require and also only pay $6.30 per script for my life-saving medicine. If I didn't have this privilege and I was in your position I would be in a serious amount of pain and rendered functionally and physically completely disabled and unable to have any kind of life outside my bed. I'm so sorry this isn't your experience. Access to the healthcare every/any human requires should be a human-right and it makes me furious that that isn't the case. People here complain when they have to wait more than 30mins for a doctors appointment! They don't stop and think how lucky they are to have access to a doctor at all and that makes me furious too. I wish I could help you and I wish things were different. I know I'm just a random stranger but my heart genuinely aches for you. I sincerely hope things get better for you as soon as possible. Hang in there and keep fighting ♥
@@asdfguiwsertyuio3689 i also have a lot of chronic pain and it's so weird because a lot of doctors don't even acknowledge it, or blame it on weight / me being a girl or hormonal issues, we have limited access on medicine overall and most people here have a very: you're always in pain because you're lazy mentality ( since we're a post Sovietic URSS country) older people are very pro work all the time and never complain. I'm lucky my parents are understanding but I'm not complaining here, I'm just sharing a point of view since you're probably not that familiar with it. Thank you so much for your kind words + sharing your experience , just because you're a position of privilege doesn't mean you're at fault at all, you're still in pain and you're still struggling, it's not fair to compete for who's in a worse position , I also hope you'll be better and keep fighting 💛
It took less people to persuade J&J to make changes than TB has killed in the past year. Really shows the power of public opinion on this company and a rare, but admirable use of this channel that will save millions of lives. Unbelievable is the impact that one man in a RUclips video can make on the world!
It also shows the power of the Profit incentive. J&Js intention was not to kill people, that was just a side effect of making money. Long lasting and system wide change cant be made through public opinion campains but through system change
Filed a report. This is truly appalling. Thank you for keeping us informed about this kind of stuff, John! For those that are confused about how to complain, these are the steps I took: Go to first link in description> First two boxes are your country> Pick pharmaceuticals> Then choose Janssen Pharmaceuticals (Janssen has the patent on bedaquiline)> After agreeing to their terms, I chose the Human Rights category. You could probably pick any of them (specifically, Business Integrity or Patient Safety stand out as applicable options)> You CAN choose to be anon or put in your info> Then type your complaint in the box Hope that’s helpful for someone! :)
You need to select Pharmaceuticals then Janssen Pharmaceuticals. The consumer division is something different so that would not be appropriate. Appreciate the "Human Rights" category idea!
Right? It's being thrust into the deep end and finding he's not drowning that got him here. May our fight against TB win. We eradicated smallpox there's no reason anyone had to die of TB.
@@rachelhansen2417 I'm no J&J fan, but there is no evidence talc causes cancer. Go look it up at the American Cancer Society. We just like to assign a boogey-man to unfortunate events. Just like what's happened with anti-vaxxers believing vaccines cause autism. Just delusion. Nothing more.
I love this, John. Thank you for mobilizing this community. "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not."
@@MuzikBike i think so! Put asbestos baby powder on shelves and acted like nothing happened when thousands of people are suffering cancer from it. Insane how these giant pharmaceutical companies are killing millions of people and are still doing it to this day
@@MuzikBike yes they were! They hid the knowledge that it caused cancer and even continued to push marketing toward minorities! 😡 I know one of the lawyers who is sending financial retribution for the victims.
I am inclined to say that having the ability to save millions of lives and then not doing that because it is less lucrative is by definition monstrous. J&J sure has a lot of products
Pharmacy Tech and Pre-Pharmacy student here, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the sickening things that drug companies try to get away with. Not to mention the red tape people have to go through when dealing with insurance companies for life-saving drugs. More awareness needs to be brought to the entire pharmaceutical and healthcare industries of how money-hungry companies are more worried about the bottom-line instead of the focusing on what's best for humanity.
"We believe our first responsibility is to the patients..." except where that conflicts with our fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders, because we live in a crazy upside down country where it's a crime to make slightly less money for investors, but negligent genocide is A-OK.
When people tell you our options as a species are either socialism or barbarism. This corporate lead death of millions for the sake of profits J&J does not need, is the barbarism. Make no mistake. Those barbarians are already inside your house trying to plunder your mind, body, and spirit.
If you can't afford a drug, you're not a patient. Though the old version of the drug will still be available as a cheap generic. So this video (and most complaints about patent 'evergreening') are at least a little dishonest. Either the new patent offers some genuine benefit in which case you get effectively tiered pricing (but not denial of treatment) or the new patent offers no benefit in which case the problem is corrupt doctors.
@@ryanwise50 "Though the old version of the drug will still be available as a cheap generic." Sadly, this isn't true. The power in evergreening comes from a company being able to use the system to bully smaller companies and even countries. They are able to say "this change we have made is substantial enough to deserve a new patent" with one side of their mouth, and "this generic version of our old drug is too similar to our current patent" with the other, and it doesn't matter that the suit is ridiculous, because they only have to make the threat of a costly legal battle obvious, and most companies won't even try (because of *their* fiduciary responsibility).
My great grandmother died of tuberculosis just a few years before penicillin became available and my grandma’s first memories are of being held up to the sanitarium window to wave to her mother. It’s heartbreaking to know that this same story could be repeated with children’s first memories being waving to their dying mothers just a few years before a patent expires that would mean they could have afforded to live.
Thanks for sharing that story. My children’s grandfather died young, in the 60s, of TB that did not respond to the treatments available in his days. They say he was a wonderful man that did not get to raise his children. The stories of the visits to the sanatorium are very touching. Thinking that scenario and others just as sad are happening all over the world but could be avoided is heartbreaking. Joining the campaign to make J&J aware of the opinion of those who care.
My grandmother’s brother was in the sanitarium in Eddyville, KY, with TB. He was well enough to be allowed to come outside and sit at the far end of a picnic table to visit with us. A month later he was declared well and went home.
Submitted a complaint online. Was a pretty simple process to do, and will encourage my friends and family to also make their voices heard. Thanks for making this video and spreading the word!
Do you mind telling me how you did it and what you typed? I tried to do so through the link in the description, but it wasn’t letting me submit it due to needing specifics like date and location.
these are the selections i made before reaching the complaint form; it was a few drop down menus and a big open text box; no specific date and time fields or such, so try this if you get stuck: [Choose a market] your market: you choose market where concern occurred: United States sector related to concern: corporate region where violation occurred: US/PR company related to concern: JJ World Headquarters US [Category] Human Rights
I got stuck on page 1/4, where they ask for information about the market/region. There was no way to navigate to the other pages. Did you run into that issue?
Coming back to this from Hanks Video with tears of joy. Dear John and Hank, thank you for being a force for good consistently inspiring creativity, education and non-profit goodness both in me personally as an artist and globally on wondrous days like today. Especially powerful knowing you have both been going through so much personally. So proud of this community. Thank you thank you thank you!
@@okokayay I mean, not doing anything will be even more useless. At the very very least people will know that it is a problem and the company will know that people aren't happy about it
My mom used to do home Healthcare for TB patients, it's a truly awful disease. The fact that J&J values their money more than human lives is deplorable. Hopefully something will be done to fix this problem, and eventually the systems that encourage problems like it.
... You do realise they legally can't do otherwise? They are required to maximise shareholder value and if they don't they can be sued by the shareholders, don't blame them as a single actor, it's the entire economic system
How do you continue providing a service if you can't recuperate the resources necessary to fund that service? Why do people act like pursuing profit is a frivilous choice which only cartoonishly evil people could make to deliberately hurt others, rather than a necessary choice all people try to make in one way or another (including you, if you make any effort to sustain yourself) to mitigate the impact which natural scarcity has on their life, their goals, and the service they can provide to others?
@@hagoryopi2101they're pursuing a profit from the one group of people who cannot give them it, and from a purely business perspective they are possibly losing 6 million lifetime customers of all their other products in doing so. It doesn't make sense to maintain the patent from a moral, ethical, personal, professional, reputational or general business perspective.
I have just recently started working in infectious disease and I can honestly say I was so shocked to find out that people still get TB. I place that solely down to ignorance as I am from a rich country and have not dealt with it till now. What J&J are doing is disgusting and im glad that negotiation have been successful but they're are plenty of over big pharma companies that are doing the same. John you are really making a difference and for that I thank you greatly!
As someone from Australia who tested positive for latent Tuberculosis which I got from an adult student over many months in a small classroom room where she sat next to me the student on the other side got it too, the 9 months of treatment was awful, massive fatigue I fell asleep driving got lucky and even though I drifted 4 lanes the rumble strips in the emergency lane woke me up. I knew TB was still a problem but I didn’t realise it was a problem in Indonesia which is where my student went home for a holiday in to her village and came back with active TB.
@@Sweetlyfe it mind blowing! TB should not be a thing anymore it should of been eradicated, along with Polio! I hope you are doing well and I'm glad you got the treatment needed! My comment was a bit wrong I did know that people still got TB what I meant to say is that I am shocked at how common and prevalent it is!
@@daisymay6819 We get it a lot in east London, disproportionately so for a so-called first world country. It's a result of extreme poverty and extreme population density here. People think TB is just something experienced in a far-off land, but it's not. Luckily things are improving here, but it's only because we're a rich country that has resources to spare. It's pitiful that we live in 2023 and still, companies try to/are allowed to destroy the lives of people with the luck of being born in a financially poorer country.
I contracted TB while deployed to Iraq in 2007 while in the military. Once back stateside, I had 2 positive PPD skin tests and was diagnosed. Thankfully it was detected while still dormant. I took INH for 9 months and was declared cured. However, this news was still scary even though I was in the US and had access to free healthcare through the military. I cannot imagine the fear and anguish of contracting TB without access to these benefits. People in the US are shocked I had TB because it is so rare here.
@@RaiyanAhmedLoL for the love of... soldiers don't have a say in where they're deployed. Don't ask the soldiers whether they feel regret over being in Iraq, ask the people who deployed them there and the people who chose to lie to the public about "weapons of mass destruction".
I hate phone calls but I just got off the line with a very nice young lady who took my complaint! Thank you for being so passionate about this issue and informing your community, hopefully they listen
Johnson and Johnson has done SO MUCH HARM over the years, it is truly insane to me how they still exist as a company with so much power. I'm 100% behind you John, let's force them to do some good for once!
They exist because doing these kinds of things is what helps a company amass massive amounts of power that it can use to eliminate competition and lobby for more favourable laws. When the system rewards these sorts of practices, it is inevitable that a company will use them because it effectively punishes those who don't.
Three weeks ago: "I eh am not great at this CEO stuff." This week: "I am a CEO and I will use the combined might of all I possess and the internet itself to crush your puny, multi billion dollar company if you don't seize your selfish greed." If it continues like this, they will have a new non-profit medicinal company by the time Hank is ready to return.
For those wanting to submit a form online, here is a copy and paste for the "issue" dialogue box: "I implore you not to evergreen the patent on the TB drug bedaquiline, as doing so will deny millions of people access to live-saving treatment, and is a violation of your corporate credo. Thank you."
I am not sure if RUclips will allow me to share a link here, but you can also paste exactly this into the Credo Integrity Line (their Ethics complaint division, link at the very bottom of their home page). There are more dedicated resources to reviewing the complaints there - speaking as a former contractor for J&J.
Hello Mr. John Green, I don't normally comment and I am making a shot in the dark even writing this, but thank you for this video. As someone who had a parent suffer from TB and survived, it was hell for them to even go through. I don't remember whenever my father had it because I was barely two years old, but my mother (who was pregnant with my younger sibling) recalled that doctors had to quarantine him from both me and my mother. She also recalled how he was coughing up blood and was close to death on multiple occasions. Thank you once again for making this, I appreciate your strong and justifiable anger to J&J.
@@stardust86x It is my pleasure. My father was privileged to receive medication since we're from what is considered a "rural" area, and he is alive despite TB impacting his lungs. I'm sorry to hear that you aunt died from it, and I hope your dad is living his best life.
I've been working in J&J in Prague for the EMEA sector for almost a year now. I love the job and I've met really amazing colleagues here. I sadly also know this company was responsible in the past for not exactly the most positive behaviour... think of the opioids crisis of the 2000s, to make a really basic example. I didn't know this was going on until this video John, so I'll try my best in making my voice heard, despite being nothing but the smallest gear in a colossal pharmaceutical engine. Also, amazing that you referenced Our Credo! :D That is something that as an employee I was told on my very first day to always keep into count... so of course I will try my best to make it so that those words are something that my company can live up to. Lots of love for you and Hank!
Wow! John, it’s wonderful to see how easily you and your brother can use your influence for good. Johnson and Johnson was avoiding bad press when their greed was spotlighted. I prefer to thank you for shining the light on the problem. Thank you!!!!
This problem plagues pretty much all American pharmaceutical companies and it is NOT OKAY. As a person with chronic illness this is something I think about everyday and I hope more people start to pay attention to pharmacy companies abusing public interest! Patients can't be the only ones who care about this.
Yep. Unfortunately, basically no-one cares until they get chronically ill. My disease is one of the top thre most expensive to treat in the US. More expensive than most cancers, and I’ve had it for 31 years.
@racerx4152 No, it didn't. If anything the U.S. has gotten better by forsaking those beliefs. Far more queer people can be out without the fear of all of society not accepting them at all. (There's still a lot of queerphobia and issues but it's far better now.) Racism isn't as bad. (Christianity in the U.S. is forever mixed with white supermercy.) Purity culture has only ever hurt people and especially women.
‘They think they can get away with this because they think we’re not paying attention’ 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 I’ve recently started fundraising for a fabulous charity called MercyShips and being part of the vlogbrothers community for many years has showed me that a platform like this can do immense good. 🙏❤️
@@ScarryGargoyle Woohoo! I definitely had lots of people telling me 'don't put that video about that charity on your channel that'll destroy the momentum etc etc' but then I think well, Hank and John do it brilliantly, I'll try! Glad we did!! 🥰
It is honestly astonishing how we continue to let people die by the millions because we wanna make some extra money. We NEED to be better, and I hope we will be. Thank you John
For real, we the average people, aren't even profiting off of this. Only the big wigs in charge are. A handle full of people getting rich off of letting people die😔.
Submitted my review to their company site. For anyone wondering, it only takes about 4 minutes. 👍🏼 For anyone who doesn’t have the time to type, feel free to copy/paste my statement in your report: “The current Johnson & Johnson plan to evergreen its patent on TB medication Bedaquiline represents a monumental breach of company values. Despite J&J’s commitment to its patients, this decision will undoubtedly lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of them. I sincerely hope that voices of reason and compassion for humanity prevail in this situation so that Johnson & Johnson can once again be viewed as an organization which puts its patients first.”
John, could you make an organizational sign-on letter on this issue that other organizations could join? I'm Executive Director of a Disability Rights nonprofit in Boston, and (while our capacity is quite limited) we would gladly add our name to this fight, and I think we'd be far from the only ones.
Just filed my complaint with J&J at ethics point. Thanks so much for making me aware of this! Will always fight against evergreen patents as a type one diabetic with need of insulin I have been personally victimized. But this cannot happen to TB patients!
@@elmastro-ye9lw if I boycott everyone who sell their products, I can't buy medicine anymore. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure every pharmacy/drugstore where I live sells their products
Your example of Neosporin is right on. I DO buy name-brand Neosporin over the generic, as I do with Children's Tylenol, because I figure I know who made it-even though I know the generic is probably just as good. I think you've convinced me that maybe I need to rethink that.
I used to work at Unilever so therefore have a lot of former colleagues who now work at JnJ. I will be sure to pass this along ❤️ Cause as a former employee of a large company one of my favorite activities is dismantling atrocities from the inside 😏
The whole issue is the discovery part - drug development is CRAZY expensive. There’s a reason that a handful of huge corporations develop the vast majority of drugs. In the US it takes a billion dollars to create a drug and take it to market due to all of the work and safety testing involved, which in other countries is funded by the government/ their version of the FDA, but in the US is funded by the company itself. The ability to patent drugs and sell them for profit is exactly what makes that billion dollar investment worth it. If you remove to ability to patent drugs you remove the incentive for companies to develop drugs at all. I completely agree that this whole system is broken and immoral, but there is no easy fix.
Congrats, you've found a way to get no new drugs ever again. By far THE most effective way to get new drugs and medicine is the free market, and that requires protections for investment, or nobody will EVER risk developing and testing new drugs ever again. You can't fix this with government funds, by the way. Just look at the US military; they pay 10x-100x too much for virtually everything. Trying to shift over to government research would result in a 90-99% loss in efficiency.
Patents exist because no one came up with a better idea for a system to reward research. If you don't have patents and your competitors can just sell your goods at cost you have no way to recover the research cost. If you have a reasonable idea for a different system an economics nobel prize is probably waiting for you. (No, let the state pay for it is not a system, because who then decides which research proposals get funded - not all of them can be funded)
As someone who survived PTB (it was painful and thought I was gonna died without knowing why breathing feels like drowning), this withholding of access to life-saving measures is INFURIATING. J&J IS GONNA HEAR FROM ME.
I work in advertising. I haven't had the... "pleasure"... of working on anything for J&J, but I've done work for their competitors across dozens of different markets. And... the only compelling case that can be made to them (and any other company that they compete against) is a case of money: Unless people's behaviors *directly* threaten their bottom line, they won't change a thing about their ethics nor their business practices. That's it - that's got to be "the" strategy, because they don't (and won't) care about anything else. They don't care about PR or optics, nor do they care about public sentiment. At this point, they don't even really care about regulatory bodies because they (like their competitors) simply find "creative" ways to grease those wheels - often times outright breaking the law in doing so (which always goes unpunished, because... well, it's the very regulatory bodies they're indirectly bribing that would be the ones responsible to do things about it in the first place). At this point, obviously, it becomes hard to say "I'm going to boycott J&J" and then follow through, especially if you're a person who's dependant on their drugs to, you know, live. *But* - in all other instances - if people want to see change, then they need to not only demand change, but show companies like J&J what happens when they *don't* change: Don't buy their products, and don't buy products from companies that are partnered with J&J or utilize J&J somewhere in their supply chain. The more we, collectively, work to threaten their bottom line, the more willing they will be to change their behavior.
Right on the money (no pun intended). We have to go after their profit. I haven't touched anything from them in quite a lot of years now, even though they are *huge* in Scandinavia where I live. Most of my friends don't use their products either, but we can only do so much. We need a BIG ass boycott from people who are in a position where they *can* boycott them. I'm not suggesting that people who need their products, and there isn't any generic or otherwise equal product to what they use, should stop taking their medicine. But if there's an equal product to what they are using - SWITCH! (As long as it's truly equal). You don't need those exact wipes, there are hundreds of others. You don't need that exact baby oil, there are hundreds of others, and so on. That's where I stand.
Ok well since not only are most drugs sold by them, but also most health and hygiene and wellness products, what I am hearing is I cannot affect their bottom line as they essentially have a monopoly on essentials. I’m also not hearing that it is time for an armed uprising against-and I say this unironically- our corporate overlords. When does that option go on the table?
I have been on a mostly off-the-internet vacation for the last two weeks and I didn't have wifi from Monday until Thursday and I'm IMMENSELY disappointed that I missed Nerdfighteria and its adjacent communities (lead by, of course, the Stop TB Partnership) pressuring J&J into doing the right thing here. But I'm SO amazed that in those few days I was offline, we were able to accomplish such an incredible thing. This community is so incredible and I cannot wait for us to continue harnessing our collective power to decrease massive amounts of worldsuck. DFTBA, y'all ❤
Thanks for speaking up about this, John. The work you've done on advocating against this disease, and not just spreading information but taking action is great. The same thing that we see here is what happened during the pandemic too, and it feels like there's not enough attention paid to these things until a chain reaction derailing a lot of people's lives happens.
“during the pandemic” oh i wish i could live in the blissful ignorance you do. look up recent disability figures, long covid and the stigma is a MAJOR. problem
There is no attention paid until there is a direct threat posed to our wealthy overlords. Then they will take half hearted measures in ways that primarily maintain the status quo.
@@ilovebirds23 I'm not ignorant, I'm very well aware of the figures. The pandemic was just the most blaring example, and though the same kind of discrimination takes place every single day, the sheer urgency and scale at which this happened, with entire countries which made up huge chunks of population (including mine) being denied certain vaccines due to patents was a huge issue, which only contributed to the spread of the newer variants. It's also the most relevant example considering the fact that John mentioned that this could very well lead to another pandemic. I never insinuated that these things aren't happening now.
i suffer from lung disease, treateable but non-curable. in fact i am once again hospitaized for an exacerabation right now. if i knew there was a drug that could save me i would never stop yelling until everyone had access. thank you for this information, for having such an important special interest, and for caring so much about your fellow humans. you and your brother are true examples of everyday heroes and we are a much richer population because you share yourselves with the world.
Americans with asthma (another treatable, but noncurable lung disease) have suffered from similar drug price-gouging and evergreening with the most common asthma drugs, including albuterol and advair inhalers. Same kinds of patent loopholes letting them extend patents and prevent generics from going on the market. These companies are only too happy to kill people to make money. I hope you get better soon. I know how scary it is not being able to breathe! I'll keep you in my thoughts.
I think the coolest thing about this is how easy you made it to voice an opinion to J&J for anyone who sees this video. I just submitted a report to them. Thank you for helping me learn how to be a force for good in the world, John!
As I approach old age and reflect on how this country has changed over the course of my lifetime, I really appreciate you and the message you put out there. When I was a teenager in the 80’s you could still lose your job, apartment and family if you were outed. Sexism, racism and homophobia were far more prevalent than they are now. Women can and do have better access to good jobs, but we still have a long way to go. One thing that’s been changing at an exponentially faster pace is the corporatization of EVERYTHING, and the drive for profit that’s destroying small businesses, creating homogeneous communities, individual lives suffer. Small businesses suffer. Businesses are for People. The economy exists to serve the human race. But we’ve forgotten all about caring for each other, in a big way. When I was a kid, we were taught civic duty. That we, as individuals, have a duty to our community. We care for the elderly, the disabled, the vulnerable. We pick up litter, we volunteer in community gardens. We care for and about others. When we see an injured person or a stray animal or a car accident or a house on fire. We HELP each other. There is still a powerful current of this running through us. I’m totally on board. This is important! Preventable deaths or biggER profit? ❤❤❤
The balance between monetary capital and social capital has gone out of whack. It started with Regan’s trickle down economics, the idea that strong corporations lead to strong communities. It didn’t work. In order for capitalism to function, that balance must be restored. The idea that massive salaries to executives and massive profits are okay needs to stop.
"Companies exist to serve the human race." I'd like to put this another way: "Companies exist to provide a service to the human race." I keep clapping back with this line at people with those who insist "cOmPAnIEs ExISt tO mAkE a PRofIT." If the vast majority of a life-changing/life-saving/life-altering *thing* no matter what it is, cannot access that service due to exorbitant prices or some other inaccessibility, then they are not actually providing a service.
@@karenneill9109 Capitalism is functioning exactly how it’s supposed to. To quote Warren Buffett: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
@@Tofu_va_Bien Of course a ridiculously rich person would say that. He can’t possibly spend all his money, and his family will be set for their lives too. Why does he need more? It’s selfish, and imbalanced when there are hungry people living on the street. It’s repugnant.
Hi John. I spent a lot of time carefully drafting my complaint and then submitted it via the Credo Integrity complaint portal. Thank you for bringing this situation to the light - as a US taxpayer whose dues were no doubt apportioned to fund the research for this drug, I feel it's time to end Johnson & Johnson's seemingly unnecessary SPP and to allow generics onto the market.
Thank you for your support! Our efforts and the efforts of the scientists and patients over at StopTB and the GDF have worked! Announcement came out a few hours ago! The generic versions are going to be made available. 🎉
If people looked into the history of these long standing huge conglomerate companies, they would be floored by the amount of horrible business/safety practices and market manipulation to essentially destroy competition. Patents on medications are just the tip of the iceberg imo. I've got some complaints to send in too, for sure.
This is new. I’m a medical student in Nepal, where Tuberculosis still runs rampant and almost every household has a patient suffering from TB or has a history of TB sometime in the past. Yet, we haven’t even been taught about this drug, forget prescribing it to patients! The antitubercular regimen currently being followed has showed large amounts of resistance and let alone being able to buy this medicine it isn’t even talked about and is placed as the last resort in the national guidelines!
Wow. You seem to have an internet connection to watch videos, so it does surprise me that if it's such a common disease this treatment seems to be unknown there, when googling it once should give you that answer.
@@phoenix9531definitely! I meant to focus on the fact that even if it’s on the national guidelines, this drug isn’t offered here or isn’t easily available
Hank and John have never let me down in the 10 years I’ve watched them/consumed their content. I love their devotion to combatting corrupt pharmaceutical companies that prohibit the American public from obtaining the resources they need.
@@azuradawn5683 I know. In my line of work which is Social Work, I mostly focus on American domestic policies and companies which halter the progress of the public
@@azuradawn5683 disagree. In my native Canada, and most European countries, socialised medicine makes this illegal domestically. To sell drugs here, you have to submit the recipe to authorities to provide generics. Even cutting edge meds always have a generic option. They're viewed as lower quality, so if you have a good prescription benefits (not covered by socialised medicine), you spring for the trademarks. That is to say, this is uniquely an American and (respecting American patents) foreign aid issue.
DESPITE ALL MY RAGE I'M STILL JUST A NERD IN A CAGE. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Shared and letter sent. Patent laws for life-saving medication and any means of using that medication needs to change. We shouldn't have to appeal to a company's humanity to prevent unnecessary death.
Especially because companies like this have made clear early on that they have no humanity to appeal to. For anyone who remembers either of their asbestos baby product or vaginal mesh scandals, this ain't their first rodeo.
I have my orders. This requires urgency. I can’t believe this is even a discussion. Count on me to help get the word out! Thanks, John. You’re doing noble work.
@tylerpixel And therein lies the problem with the idea of boycotting medical companies. You really can't, not without sacrificing yourself, and that's a hell of a choice to make. Should people "just" stop buying the meds keeping them alive because the company is holding their life hostage for profit? Should people "just" dismiss all preventive medicine because of these sharks?
I don’t think anyone is suggesting a boycott, but to hold them accountable to their company’s mission statement. They have the key to a life saving treatment that really affects a specific part of the world and there is no reason to make it inaccessible to the ones affected the most.
@@staceyduncanbts486 There are some people in the comments calling for boycott, but I was more replying to Tyler Pixel talking about getting vaccine boosters made by such companies.
Four years ago I needed to be screened for TB before getting accepted into a residential mental health program. It felt so odd because I thought it was a relatively unheard of illness nowadays. But watching your videos, and reading your tweets on it, it’s honestly horrifying that we don’t hear more about it 😞 Thank-you for speaking out about this, and educating us as you do it!
I've worked directly with homeless populations, and going into it I also thought TB was a thing of the past and totally unheard of for decades, but you wouldn't believe how outrageously common it is among homeless populations (especially with a past instance of incarceration or friends who were). To make it worse, they also often are infected with HIV, which lowers their immunity even further and can make untreated TB even more of a deadly disease. It's absurd that we, as a society, let this things happen. We should have eradicated this in all populations, not leave vulnerable ones to deal with it!
I became a pharmacy technician a couple years ago... learning how these companies can pull this ish both blew my mind and made me cry. When a drug is made, the creators get to be called the "name brand" and get to have YEARS of the market before generics can be made. It's sickening.
My child played volleyball in High School in the US. Her coach ended up having a supposedly dormant case of TB. We were upset. I also know of people coming from other countries, mainly south America who have had it. This is why employers require the TB test every few years.
I mean. We are all personally affected by TB everyday. And have been for thousands of years. Through how it has shaped, is shaping, and will shape our world by the lives it has ended far too soon, by the money and infrastructure spent on keeping it in poor countries and the fact that your money is going to research for treatments for drugs to fight drug resistant TB because of unequal access. That's your money. That's your parents and grandparents money. Would you rather it be able to go to like fighting climate change or something? TB affects us all.
John, I served you and some of the Crash Course folks a few years ago in Theater 1 at Flix (nerding out and not able to list everything I'm a fan of). At the time, I felt like I couldn't find the words to express how much you and Hank have inspired my own younger brother and I, as well as so many others. To the same extent, I was dumbfounded to see on Philly D that this video and its viewers had made such a profound impact in ONLY 2 DAYS!!! Just had to stop by again to spread encouragement and support the movement!!
Filed a report online. Was almost too lazy to do so, but it’d be monumentally selfish of me not to try and stop this. Report didn’t take very long to file and you can do so anonymously if that’s a concern for you. Thanks for sharing, John.
@@merelha5930 Duh! Thank you! I was "staring myself blind", and count not find it. Second time today, somehow, the juice box in the fridge invented a invisibility cloak. Off to the links I go :)
Thank you for raising the alarm on an issue that I likely would have not heard about otherwise. I will be submitting a complaint through their website, and I hope everyone will too. It is an honor to be a part of this community that fights for humanity and justice
I really admire your ability to (barely) contain your rage so you can effectively use it not just to scream and shout, but to communicate and have meaningful conversations about what needs to be done. I see a lot of that in Nerdfighteria and I'm so proud of us for containing our rage and putting it to good use.
Scishow encouraged me to go back to school (I am 34), in two years I will get my degree in engineering. I can't wait to have the finances to help donate. In the meantime, I will help by echoing your concerns!
I work in healthcare because I want to make the world a better place. It’s sad that some corporations fail to see how much harm they are causing to the people they say they’re trying to help. Thank you John (and Hank) for pointing out injustices in the world and demonstrating how individuals can help make a difference. I let J&J know that they are violating their credo and love how many of these comments are others doing the same ❤
Just shared with the 24 Co-ops at MSU in Michigan! I’m gonna see what organizations here might be interested in getting involved. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!!
Thank you John. I'm a unionized J&J factory worker and I promise to make a big fuss over this. Doing my job for the last couple years has meant playing a tiny role in saving millions of lives, and I won't let the buck pass me and my machines.
I work for J&J as well & filed a complaint and gave my WWID. They need to know that their employees are angry as well. This is a clear CREDO violation.
You probably will never read this, but THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO HUMANITY!!! ❤Your efforts are admirable beyond words. YOU used your platform for a selfless and incredibly worthy cause that gets far too little attention and in turn have arguably saved potentially millions of lives. It may not be perfect but it’s a major battle won. You got the ball rolling and the tides have turned. I stand ready as a loyal nerdfighter to continue this ongoing fight.
This man's faith that actual human beings with feelings and compassion run Johnson & Johnson is inspiring, and though it is a level of faith that I do not share it would be nice to be wrong.
Millions in revenue and potential bonuses for me _or_ millions of (mostly poor, black and brown) people I don't know die but I face no legal repercussions and I might be sacked for not maximising profit enough. It's not just this company, it's the incentives in the whole damn system.
I'm not proposing we appeal to their morals. I'm proposing that we overwhelm them with negative attention and make it in their best interest to withdraw the patent extension applications. -John
@@vlogbrothers I saw a lecture years ago by the one who created the Psychopath inventory. He said large businesses started using it in hiring to select FOR the trait, and he predicted that business behavior would get a lot worse as they rose through the ranks to positions of power. It seems his predictions are playing out, so your strategy is 100% correct. You can't reason with Psychopaths. But if you understand that they ARE likely psychopaths, you can create strategies to deal with it. I applaud you for sensing it without hearing the Doctor's talk. Assume they are psychopaths and you will likely succeed.
I hope that if I ever have a platform such as Hank & John, I'm able to make as much of a difference in the world as they do. I have massive respect for both of them.
Sometimes I forget that Vlogbrothers isn’t one of the “biggest” channels around (subscribers/views) because it truly is one of the most impactful channels I’ve ever encountered. This community makes so much meaningful stuff happen, and has been doing so for decades now.
Shared to my friends! I live with Type One Diabetes, and it breaks my heart to hear stories of folks dying due to the high cost of insulin. If I can do a small thing like email J&J to put a stop to similar, unnecessary tragedies, I will! I can’t imagine a better way to spend my lunch break! ❤ Thanks John for all the work you do to make a difference in the world. You’re my inspiration!
Typing out a message may be hard for some of you. Please feel free to use mine. Thank you, John for bringing this to our attention. Hi, I know you running the social media are decent people and are not to blame for this. But I believe you have greater power than me to effect change. I urge you to honor your company credo to put patients first and save millions of lives by not enforcing the secondary patent on bedaquiline. Not only is this absolutely the right thing to do for the people but also will this prevent a tarnishing of your brand reputation. I look forward to your response. A deeply concerned customer.
Would you edit the drug name to be correctly spelled? Many people won't catch it and we want J&J to have no doubt about what we're taking about! Thank you so much for offering this!
I would also consider setting a reminder for 7-10 days to go access the 'Follow Up On A Report' feature on the website. There's always a possibility that they have metrics on how many reports are filed and then never thought about again, vs those that generate recurrent attention on the issue. I don't have any knowledge that they definitely look at that, but big companies love metrics, and so could be worth checking out, on the off change that it might show them that you intend to continue to pay attention to this issue. (Also I don't know what exactly the follow up option shows you, but might as well try)
BIG BIG NEWS: THE STOP TB PARTNERSHIP HAS ANNOUNCED SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATIONS WITH JOHNSON & JOHNSON TO MAKE GENERIC BEDAQUILINE AVAILABLE IN ALMOST EVERY COUNTRY WITH A HIGH BURDEN OF TUBERCULOSIS: www.stoptb.org/news/global-drug-facility-update-access-to-bedaquiline
But we are still waiting on them to understand the details. Ask them for the details:
Tell them on facebook: facebook.com/jnj/
Tell them on instagram: instagram.com/jnj/?hl=en
This is an incredible day. Obviously TREMENDOUS work still to do in improving access and diagnostics in tuberculosis treatment, but wow wow wow bedaquiline is going to be so much more affordable in almost every country. (There are a few countries where there is complexity, but even there rays of hope have emerged in the last day.) THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT FOR TB SURVIVORS. -John
+
What market would you suggest we choose for the CREDO report?
Doxx the executives and protest at their houses.
@@emh6021 following
@@emh6021 I got stuck on that too
I want to contextualize John's point made at 3:30. I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana and I can tell you (even though Ghana's economy is in its own unique rough patch) the price of $1.50 for one pill (in a several months long treatment plan) is absolutely outrageous for most people living in West Africa. $1.50 translates to about 17 Ghana Cedi. 17 cedi is enough to buy 17 balls of kenkey, which can comfortably feed a child in my village for about three days. It's enough to buy half a month supply of condoms or one pack of menstrual pads. It's enough to buy a seat on a bus to take you over 25 miles. It's enough to buy three pills of a dewormer I'm currently taking because people get many other diseases they don't plan to. 25 cedi is the price of a health insurance coverage for four years, and even that many villagers don't see as a worthwhile investment because money is very, very tight. People would wince at having to pay 17 cedi once for a drug, let alone having to pay for 4-6 pills every day for several months. Many people in this part of the world choose to tough it out and die seemingly abruptly, and it's largely due to the cost of medical treatment.
Thank you for your personal insight. This makes it much more real, as a person in a region where Tuberculosis isn't prevalent, in understanding just how expensive and prohibitively inaccessible it is.
+
Thank you for the much needed context!! Something that is a burdensome cost to low income people in places like the US can be downright cost prohibitive in the global south, and people may not realize that without putting it into terms like this.
Also thank you for your work with the Peace Corp!
+
+
As someone who used to work for J&J, I can confirm the upper management always prioritizes profits over people, including thier own employees which is why thier turnover is ridiculous if you look into it. So yes, most of the employees also wish thier corporate overlords gave a single care about actually saving lives, but have very little power to make that happen. I left a few years ago and have zero interest in ever working for them again. It's also really difficult to boycott them because they own an INSANE number of brands (seriously things you would never guess) and you can't just stop taking your meds.
Of course they do. They're a corporation. That's how corporations work
That is so sad. I desperately want this not to be true. May someone at J&J prove her wrong just this once!
That's what frustrating about most industries. It's almost impossible to vote with your wallet because they basically have a monopoly on so many products. I'd love to avoid buying from unethical companies, but then that leaves almost no options. Between Nestle, J&J, and General Mills, they basically own the entire grocery store.
How that's not your real name
@@GigaBoost one of the worst aspects of the system is this, corporations work that way and HAVE to work that way. Mgmt is mandated to work in interests of shareholders, who will, in turn, expect short term profits. A lot of shares are owned by investment funds and banks that buy those shares with money from many different parties, This maximally dilutes the stake for everyone and makes the human aspect of "owning" a company so far removed that it is impossible to find someone to care. This is why regulations are so important. But then, mgmt will (again, in best shareholder interest) lobby politicians to keep regulations at bay.
I heard it said recently that "poverty doesn't exist because we can't help the poor. It exists because we can't satisfy the rich." And it has never felt more applicable than it does in this scenario. Price gouging life saving medication simply so the people who least need it can squeeze more out of people who can least afford it, is the most deplorable thing I think a human can do. J&J are definitely gonna be hearing from me. Thanks for the heads up, John.
Beautifully stated.
+
❤
+
You can still purchase the off label generic. Unless the FDA prevents it for some reason.
An influencer using their voice to save lives. This is what I’ve been waiting for. Thank you. Let’s all come together. We have too! Hopefully by, commenting, and liking the algorithm will pick this shit up faster.
And let's keep doing it. What better community than a group of *nerd* fighters to fight for reform? Heck, let's take on climate change and other challenges next.
The bigger deeper problem is capitalism and the profit motive. Hopefully Hank and John figure it out and take a stand.
@@strongblackcoffee9573 agreed.
Except he's passively being part of the problem by not questioning the system and instead acting like this is an individual issue to solve
@@strongblackcoffee9573thank you! ❤
Half my Twitter is Liverpool preseason and the other half is you absolutely torching J&J for immoral patent strategies…very nice work John
@@rianmulcahy7200only one matters at all
If only the torching was physical instead of metaphorical.
+
+
Wonderfuk
My wife spent time in South America and contracted TB. She took life saving medications and is alive today. Everyone deserves access to life saving medication.
Everyone does have access to the drug, provider they can pay for it. Are you going to open your wallet for someone else?
Why was she in a South American 3rd world country? She should already know disease is rampant in these countries.
@@LucielStarz123 that's the governments or your insurances job. we all pay collectively into it in order that all of us receive care when we need it. it's beneficial to care about others in your community and it promotes general progress and wellbeing, it's low iq behavior to not care about others. low empathy they call it. and no, not everyone has access to the drug. public tax funds were used in the research of this drug in order to produce life saving drugs for the public. johnson and johnson would literally prefer to generate as much profit as they can get away with while they legally can than just selling a life saving pill at a reasonable price. even if it was expensive, insurance would cover it- but if its so ungodly expensive that they wont, which seems to be the case, it drives people to poverty trying to get the medicine they need. paying a huge company that literally wouldnt even notice if you stole an entire truck loads worth of their medicine and used it at home for the rest of your life.
@@LucielStarz123 You missed the point. That medication was provided by public health, that's why she was able to take it and live to tell the story.
@@LucielStarz123 Why should someone have to pay to save their life?
After telling this to my mother, I learned that my grandmother had TB. She was privileged to have US healthcare. She was a nurse and I’m sure she would have agreed with you.
Privileged to pay 456.75 per pill
My grandfather had TB and survived, because they found a nodule of walled-off TB in his lung, years later. He didn’t really know when he might’ve gotten it. But since he lived in the US he would’ve been fine if it flared up.
My great grandfather died of TB when my grandma was in Elementary school.
As a person who is "privileged" to have American healthcare, I would greatly like to use the insurance I am forced to pay for to go to the doctor, but I can't afford it. It took me two months and a government agency to get my rx covered and I am sick of clawing for less than the minimum. The way it is now, if I get TB, I won't be getting treatment either. Maybe everyone could be a little less greedy.
❤❤❤
Under no circumstances should LIFE SAVING technology be privatized. Life should not be a privilege. Privatization like this is some dystopian stuff.
Thank you John for educating people and truly working for change. Your video will help save countless of lives.
Practically everything except tiktok is a lifesaving technology. Most medicines, cars, helicopters, cell phones, satellites, etc. Every pipe, brick, computer chip, door knob and for any building of a hospital, water sanitation, fire department, police, etc. should every brick and pipe and plastic be socialized because it could be used to save a life? All this sounds very nice but it is wildly idealistically naive.
The patent system for pharmaceuticals needs a complete overhaul. We do not need to enact further drag down the path of corporatist/Socialist hell holes to fix this issue; that’s how we got here in the first place.
@@Parker-- I don't think you know what neoliberalism has done to the world, especially USA, over the past 40+ years.
@@DipayanPyne94 I don’t think they know what “lifesaving” means either.
@@crunchybones3899 "lifesaving" is only lifesaving if there's zero steps between?
@@Parker-- personally being able to afford to buy a helicopter won’t save your live.
I'm originally from South Africa, where TB is a big problem. In one town where I lived, there was a whole hospital dedicated entirely to TB patients. A friend of my dad's had four sons. About five years ago, I heard that he had recently died due to TB. But before he died, he lost three of his four sons to TB. One of his sons contracted TB more than once, but the final time he caught the resistant strain and died. I hate this disease. Please give these profiteering sharks hell.
So I was coming here to say something similar. I paused on John's Venn diagram and to see South Africa in the centre breaks my heart. Looki get that Sierra Leonian Healthcare is important, but they are only a high TB burden, not all forms of TB + HIV, and I always feel like more should be said about that in these videos. I'm glad they're helping Africa, but there are so many health care systems on the continent that could use similar infrastructure.
+
That is horrifying
Thanks for sharing your story ❤️
South African here and these are facts. The youngst person I knew that died because of TB was 14 and in the region I live the disease is one of the biggest (and most expensive) burdens on the public health sector. In many cases people repeatedly get TB which leads to more drug resistant variants. It disgusting that people still die due to a CURABLE disease.
The title radiates justified angy. I approve.
Edit: yep, definitely justified. Corporate greed standing in the way of progress for humaity... Nothing new, but always infuriating.
angy????
@@jacobredfield1386 ANGY!!!!
@@HighFlyActionGuy agreed but no one is ready for a societal reform.
it's usually govt greed, see biden et al ukraine war, inflation skyrocketing 32 trillion debt etc, noone can afford housing and now many africans dying due to 1st world white leftists banning cheap fossil fuel energy
Corporations. Exist. To. Make. A. Profit. Period.
And that motive has spurred huge innovation.
I will never understand how a CEO sitting in a comfortable office somewhere can make a unilateral decision that effectively condemns millions of other people to death and not feel some kind of way about it.
The people that become CEOs are chosen for exactly that - to prioritize stock price over all costs.
That's why the so many sociopaths and psychopaths make it into executive leadership roles. Shareholders have their hands clean and just need maximum profits, and the system naturally promotes people without empathy towards other humans.
CEOs are selected to give shareholders as much profit as possible. Those who have the stomach to climb the corporate ladder have way larger chances of success if they are selfish and egotistical. Our systems are shite.
Dr Hare, who created the Psychopath inventory predicted this a couple of decades ago. It turn out that corporations got the bright (sarcasm) Idea that people who were psychopaths were better at business because they were ruthless. So they started to use his inventory to select FOR psychopathy, instead of using it as he intended and weed it out. As a result, this type of behavior has increased as these people were promoted to the top of their fields. Now Psychopaths tend to self select for business, so it did not cause it, but it means that we have MANY more psychopaths in top positions than we otherwise would have. And these corporations are considered people, and are also running politics. And Dr Hare predicted a lot of this.
Psychopaths
In 1944 my grandmother caught TB. She probably caught it working on the trolley. She unknowingly passed it onto my mother who was 2. By the time they were both diagnosed it was too late for my grandmother to be effectively treated but my mother was treated. Her mother died 9 years later from TB. Those antibiotics saved my mother's life.
Oh no that sucks. Wish people would understand just how awful and contagious it is. I was exposed as a child from my newly immigrated family from Vietnam but somehow we were lucky.
Slightly related note: this is an issue spanning further than this, insulin was LITERALLY made to be as cheap as humanly possible to manufacture, it costs so so soso little to make, and yet, this medicine that can save lives is being hoarded by one company, and the price is high because profits wouldn't be high without it.
We need to get rid of private patents for medicine
I think this might be going too far, because if you create no IP-protection for these drugs you will strongly disincentivize the creation of these drugs. Hopefully we can find a middle path that incentivizes drug creation to fight diseases that don’t have a drug while also preventing situations where surplus profits are able to be chosen over people’s lives.
@@bman5257 The incentive is still there if companies are making money, which they would be even if you cut prices by 50%. The issue isn't the profit for me, the issue is why is so much excess profit necessary? Especially when we find out that those excess profits are actually NOT being put back into research. Why do company heads need to make 1000% more than the lab techs? Why is it normalized that we think certain jobs are exponentially more important than others in the same company? Each piece of the puzzle is needed to complete the picture, right? But greed is the ultimate factor, and it's supported by current practices in this country.
I believe biden stated he had plans for cost reduction of insulin not sure on the current status but one can hope
The idea is to increase competition. Right now, there is little competition in most medicine. This is no bueno.
@@bman5257getting rid of ip law especially when it applies to medicine will not remove the incentive to innovate. Despite profit motive as a driver of change being a thoroughly debunked idea in many sectors it is even less applicable to medicine. An enormous amount of medical research is publicly funded and governments, especially the us, have the money to pay for the continued research and production of medicines to the benefit of millions of people. People have an innate desire to be productive and to help each other, without profit the people actually responsible for the research and production (the scientists, doctors, etc) would continue to produce and innovate. The only result of the profit motive in the medical sector is a few major companies withholding affordable lifesaving medication for the sake of growing the wealth of the ceo and shareholders.
I work in clinical research and am connected to one of their executive medical directors. I sent them a ping to see who on the inside I can speak with regarding this. I also submitted regarding the violation of their credo.
Keep up the good fight. I am so thankful people like John exist in the world to rally people together for the health of everyone.
Thanks for using your connections!
thank you!!
You are a complete legend! Thank you >.
Thank you!
Did you also file the report?
As a person with a very weak immune system living in Moldova ( one of the countries mentioned that the drug wont be distributed to) THANK YOU for making this video. Unfortunetely here in Moldova prices keep going up on medicine to the point where you seriously cannot afford them. We cant let big companies capitalize on the health of millions of people so I urge everyone to PLEASE listen and send letters to j&j, otherwise so many people will have to suffer , we already live in a poor country, people need access to health care
I live in Australia with multiple chronic illnesses at age 24 and I know how lucky I am to have rebated access to all specialist doctors I require and also only pay $6.30 per script for my life-saving medicine. If I didn't have this privilege and I was in your position I would be in a serious amount of pain and rendered functionally and physically completely disabled and unable to have any kind of life outside my bed.
I'm so sorry this isn't your experience. Access to the healthcare every/any human requires should be a human-right and it makes me furious that that isn't the case. People here complain when they have to wait more than 30mins for a doctors appointment! They don't stop and think how lucky they are to have access to a doctor at all and that makes me furious too.
I wish I could help you and I wish things were different. I know I'm just a random stranger but my heart genuinely aches for you. I sincerely hope things get better for you as soon as possible. Hang in there and keep fighting ♥
@@asdfguiwsertyuio3689 i also have a lot of chronic pain and it's so weird because a lot of doctors don't even acknowledge it, or blame it on weight / me being a girl or hormonal issues, we have limited access on medicine overall and most people here have a very: you're always in pain because you're lazy mentality ( since we're a post Sovietic URSS country) older people are very pro work all the time and never complain. I'm lucky my parents are understanding but I'm not complaining here, I'm just sharing a point of view since you're probably not that familiar with it. Thank you so much for your kind words + sharing your experience , just because you're a position of privilege doesn't mean you're at fault at all, you're still in pain and you're still struggling, it's not fair to compete for who's in a worse position , I also hope you'll be better and keep fighting 💛
Americans should not be subsidizing medicine for the 3rd world. If you don't want to pay, you obviously don't need it enough.
Holy shit a fellow moldovan
honestly in my opinion that sounds like a skill issue for you. the weak are not meant to survive
It took less people to persuade J&J to make changes than TB has killed in the past year. Really shows the power of public opinion on this company and a rare, but admirable use of this channel that will save millions of lives. Unbelievable is the impact that one man in a RUclips video can make on the world!
It also shows the power of the Profit incentive. J&Js intention was not to kill people, that was just a side effect of making money. Long lasting and system wide change cant be made through public opinion campains but through system change
It might've not been their intention, but they were very aware of it which makes them complicit in helping kill many people. Its sad. @@tobene
Filed a report. This is truly appalling. Thank you for keeping us informed about this kind of stuff, John! For those that are confused about how to complain, these are the steps I took:
Go to first link in description> First two boxes are your country> Pick pharmaceuticals> Then choose Janssen Pharmaceuticals (Janssen has the patent on bedaquiline)> After agreeing to their terms, I chose the Human Rights category. You could probably pick any of them (specifically, Business Integrity or Patient Safety stand out as applicable options)> You CAN choose to be anon or put in your info> Then type your complaint in the box
Hope that’s helpful for someone! :)
Thanks! I was a bit confused as to which boxes to pick.
+++ business Integrity also calls out the Credo by name, specifically, so that's a good one to pick!
I picked "Human rights". Seemed appropriate.
You need to select Pharmaceuticals then Janssen Pharmaceuticals. The consumer division is something different so that would not be appropriate. Appreciate the "Human Rights" category idea!
This is very helpful. @vlogbrothers - can you pin this comment? Or a similar one?
Love that John is fully embracing his new CEO confidence to make shit happen
Absolutely, I heard him say “as a fellow CEO” and I was like, “damn, it’s about time man’s finally taking his position in stride!”
I'm here for it. Sat. I will make sure that I don't buy j&j shit anywhere I can. I will buy STORE BRAND in protest. F you J&J.
Right? It's being thrust into the deep end and finding he's not drowning that got him here.
May our fight against TB win. We eradicated smallpox there's no reason anyone had to die of TB.
+
+
I nearly lost my mother to a cancer attributed to their products. I hold no love for corporations like them, and we must hold them accountable.
Just out of curiosity, and if you don’t mind my asking, was it the baby powder?
@@rachelhansen2417 I'm no J&J fan, but there is no evidence talc causes cancer. Go look it up at the American Cancer Society. We just like to assign a boogey-man to unfortunate events. Just like what's happened with anti-vaxxers believing vaccines cause autism. Just delusion. Nothing more.
@rachelhansen2417 You are correct.
Yeah, I thought their reputation was already in the garbage after it came out they knew about the baby powder and kept selling it anyway.
I love this, John. Thank you for mobilizing this community.
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not."
Johnson and Johnson make my blood boil. Their role in the vaginal mesh scandal is also infuriating and heartbreaking. We are with you John.
Weren't they also behind cancerous baby powder?
@@MuzikBike I hadn't watched the video yet but assumed this was the topic, damn
@@MuzikBike i think so! Put asbestos baby powder on shelves and acted like nothing happened when thousands of people are suffering cancer from it. Insane how these giant pharmaceutical companies are killing millions of people and are still doing it to this day
@@MuzikBike yes they were! They hid the knowledge that it caused cancer and even continued to push marketing toward minorities! 😡 I know one of the lawyers who is sending financial retribution for the victims.
@@MuzikBikethe Nesle powder?
I am inclined to say that having the ability to save millions of lives and then not doing that because it is less lucrative is by definition monstrous. J&J sure has a lot of products
It's almost like capitalist accumulation results in a handful of mega corporations owning the majority of products.
J&J, along with Walmart, Verizon, and many many other companies also use prison labor for the manufacturing of their products.
Pharmacy Tech and Pre-Pharmacy student here, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the sickening things that drug companies try to get away with. Not to mention the red tape people have to go through when dealing with insurance companies for life-saving drugs. More awareness needs to be brought to the entire pharmaceutical and healthcare industries of how money-hungry companies are more worried about the bottom-line instead of the focusing on what's best for humanity.
"We believe our first responsibility is to the patients..." except where that conflicts with our fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders, because we live in a crazy upside down country where it's a crime to make slightly less money for investors, but negligent genocide is A-OK.
When people tell you our options as a species are either socialism or barbarism.
This corporate lead death of millions for the sake of profits J&J does not need, is the barbarism. Make no mistake. Those barbarians are already inside your house trying to plunder your mind, body, and spirit.
If you can't afford a drug, you're not a patient.
Though the old version of the drug will still be available as a cheap generic. So this video (and most complaints about patent 'evergreening') are at least a little dishonest.
Either the new patent offers some genuine benefit in which case you get effectively tiered pricing (but not denial of treatment) or the new patent offers no benefit in which case the problem is corrupt doctors.
i came to write exactly this, the first responsibility of any shareholder driven company is to their shareholders.
“Negligent”
@@ryanwise50 "Though the old version of the drug will still be available as a cheap generic." Sadly, this isn't true. The power in evergreening comes from a company being able to use the system to bully smaller companies and even countries. They are able to say "this change we have made is substantial enough to deserve a new patent" with one side of their mouth, and "this generic version of our old drug is too similar to our current patent" with the other, and it doesn't matter that the suit is ridiculous, because they only have to make the threat of a costly legal battle obvious, and most companies won't even try (because of *their* fiduciary responsibility).
My great grandmother died of tuberculosis just a few years before penicillin became available and my grandma’s first memories are of being held up to the sanitarium window to wave to her mother. It’s heartbreaking to know that this same story could be repeated with children’s first memories being waving to their dying mothers just a few years before a patent expires that would mean they could have afforded to live.
Thanks for sharing that story. My children’s grandfather died young, in the 60s, of TB that did not respond to the treatments available in his days. They say he was a wonderful man that did not get to raise his children. The stories of the visits to the sanatorium are very touching. Thinking that scenario and others just as sad are happening all over the world but could be avoided is heartbreaking. Joining the campaign to make J&J aware of the opinion of those who care.
My grandmother’s brother was in the sanitarium in Eddyville, KY, with TB. He was well enough to be allowed to come outside and sit at the far end of a picnic table to visit with us. A month later he was declared well and went home.
I'm sorry that your family carries that heartbreaking story. And I agree with you. All for profits ??🤯
+
Submitted a complaint online. Was a pretty simple process to do, and will encourage my friends and family to also make their voices heard. Thanks for making this video and spreading the word!
Where did you submit it, if I may ask?
Do you mind telling me how you did it and what you typed? I tried to do so through the link in the description, but it wasn’t letting me submit it due to needing specifics like date and location.
Same! I just didn't answer specific date & location boxes. If you need to, maybe put the secondary patent date?
these are the selections i made before reaching the complaint form; it was a few drop down menus and a big open text box; no specific date and time fields or such, so try this if you get stuck:
[Choose a market]
your market: you choose
market where concern occurred: United States
sector related to concern: corporate
region where violation occurred: US/PR
company related to concern: JJ World Headquarters US
[Category]
Human Rights
I got stuck on page 1/4, where they ask for information about the market/region. There was no way to navigate to the other pages. Did you run into that issue?
Coming back to this from Hanks Video with tears of joy. Dear John and Hank, thank you for being a force for good consistently inspiring creativity, education and non-profit goodness both in me personally as an artist and globally on wondrous days like today. Especially powerful knowing you have both been going through so much personally. So proud of this community. Thank you thank you thank you!
First time I've ever filed a report on a corporation. Thanks for providing the information John.
Also remember to get your booster as well from the same company!
@@tylerpixel Nah, if you were paying attention you'd know J&J doesn't make the bivalent -- which is the dose you WANT. Get out of here, troll
You all have to understand that this is not the right way, because it's without a doubt completely useless.
@@okokayay I mean, not doing anything will be even more useless. At the very very least people will know that it is a problem and the company will know that people aren't happy about it
@@okokayay What is the right way?
My mom used to do home Healthcare for TB patients, it's a truly awful disease. The fact that J&J values their money more than human lives is deplorable. Hopefully something will be done to fix this problem, and eventually the systems that encourage problems like it.
Valuing profit over human lives is the American system at this point
@@Praisethesunson Complaining about capitalism while pretending capitalism isn't the actual problem is the most American thing ever.
... You do realise they legally can't do otherwise? They are required to maximise shareholder value and if they don't they can be sued by the shareholders, don't blame them as a single actor, it's the entire economic system
How do you continue providing a service if you can't recuperate the resources necessary to fund that service? Why do people act like pursuing profit is a frivilous choice which only cartoonishly evil people could make to deliberately hurt others, rather than a necessary choice all people try to make in one way or another (including you, if you make any effort to sustain yourself) to mitigate the impact which natural scarcity has on their life, their goals, and the service they can provide to others?
@@hagoryopi2101they're pursuing a profit from the one group of people who cannot give them it, and from a purely business perspective they are possibly losing 6 million lifetime customers of all their other products in doing so.
It doesn't make sense to maintain the patent from a moral, ethical, personal, professional, reputational or general business perspective.
I have just recently started working in infectious disease and I can honestly say I was so shocked to find out that people still get TB. I place that solely down to ignorance as I am from a rich country and have not dealt with it till now. What J&J are doing is disgusting and im glad that negotiation have been successful but they're are plenty of over big pharma companies that are doing the same. John you are really making a difference and for that I thank you greatly!
As someone from Australia who tested positive for latent Tuberculosis which I got from an adult student over many months in a small classroom room where she sat next to me the student on the other side got it too, the 9 months of treatment was awful, massive fatigue I fell asleep driving got lucky and even though I drifted 4 lanes the rumble strips in the emergency lane woke me up. I knew TB was still a problem but I didn’t realise it was a problem in Indonesia which is where my student went home for a holiday in to her village and came back with active TB.
@@Sweetlyfe it mind blowing! TB should not be a thing anymore it should of been eradicated, along with Polio! I hope you are doing well and I'm glad you got the treatment needed! My comment was a bit wrong I did know that people still got TB what I meant to say is that I am shocked at how common and prevalent it is!
@@daisymay6819 We get it a lot in east London, disproportionately so for a so-called first world country. It's a result of extreme poverty and extreme population density here. People think TB is just something experienced in a far-off land, but it's not. Luckily things are improving here, but it's only because we're a rich country that has resources to spare. It's pitiful that we live in 2023 and still, companies try to/are allowed to destroy the lives of people with the luck of being born in a financially poorer country.
I actually caught it. Supposedly it was due to immunization suppression drugs for psoriasis.
@@swift-pawedteif386 You poor thing it must have been awful, hope you’re ok now.
As a lab scientist who is preparing to be proficient in testing TB, thank you for sharing this information. This is abhorrent.
Thanks for doing what you do. Positive vibes from New Hampshire, remember to be kind to each other and yourself during these trying times.
All the Vaccine corporations robbed you blind for a placebo.
This is corporate capitalism
@@tammystockley-loughlin7680 Would saying 'positive' vibes to someone who tests biological samples mean the same xD
@@aleks-wy6uf You're wanting the pills to stay at a price that will kill millions of people? I sincerely hope I misinterpreted your comment mate.
I contracted TB while deployed to Iraq in 2007 while in the military. Once back stateside, I had 2 positive PPD skin tests and was diagnosed. Thankfully it was detected while still dormant. I took INH for 9 months and was declared cured. However, this news was still scary even though I was in the US and had access to free healthcare through the military. I cannot imagine the fear and anguish of contracting TB without access to these benefits. People in the US are shocked I had TB because it is so rare here.
do you regret being in Iraq?
@@RaiyanAhmedLoL for the love of... soldiers don't have a say in where they're deployed. Don't ask the soldiers whether they feel regret over being in Iraq, ask the people who deployed them there and the people who chose to lie to the public about "weapons of mass destruction".
@@RaiyanAhmedLoL yes. There was no point in the US invading Iraq.
I hate phone calls but I just got off the line with a very nice young lady who took my complaint! Thank you for being so passionate about this issue and informing your community, hopefully they listen
This is what I love about John. You don't just rant about how bad things are, but actually take actionable steps to try to meaningfully change things.
@@elmastro-ye9lw why? They succeeded. Didn't you get the memo?
Johnson and Johnson has done SO MUCH HARM over the years, it is truly insane to me how they still exist as a company with so much power. I'm 100% behind you John, let's force them to do some good for once!
They exist because doing these kinds of things is what helps a company amass massive amounts of power that it can use to eliminate competition and lobby for more favourable laws.
When the system rewards these sorts of practices, it is inevitable that a company will use them because it effectively punishes those who don't.
Three weeks ago: "I eh am not great at this CEO stuff."
This week: "I am a CEO and I will use the combined might of all I possess and the internet itself to crush your puny, multi billion dollar company if you don't seize your selfish greed."
If it continues like this, they will have a new non-profit medicinal company by the time Hank is ready to return.
Poopgpt
I will be the first person to apply for a job then
+
@@bwaychick20 I'll be second!
For those wanting to submit a form online, here is a copy and paste for the "issue" dialogue box:
"I implore you not to evergreen the patent on the TB drug bedaquiline, as doing so will deny millions of people access to live-saving treatment, and is a violation of your corporate credo. Thank you."
Thanks!
Thank you! (Extra helpful in case English isn't your first language)
I am not sure if RUclips will allow me to share a link here, but you can also paste exactly this into the Credo Integrity Line (their Ethics complaint division, link at the very bottom of their home page). There are more dedicated resources to reviewing the complaints there - speaking as a former contractor for J&J.
Thank you both!
Thank you for this!!
I am so proud to be part of this community. Thank you John, and thank you other nerdfighters for helping achieve this
This is so frustrating, LET THE POLITE RAGING BEGIN
Hello Mr. John Green, I don't normally comment and I am making a shot in the dark even writing this, but thank you for this video. As someone who had a parent suffer from TB and survived, it was hell for them to even go through. I don't remember whenever my father had it because I was barely two years old, but my mother (who was pregnant with my younger sibling) recalled that doctors had to quarantine him from both me and my mother. She also recalled how he was coughing up blood and was close to death on multiple occasions. Thank you once again for making this, I appreciate your strong and justifiable anger to J&J.
@@stardust86x It is my pleasure. My father was privileged to receive medication since we're from what is considered a "rural" area, and he is alive despite TB impacting his lungs. I'm sorry to hear that you aunt died from it, and I hope your dad is living his best life.
I've been working in J&J in Prague for the EMEA sector for almost a year now. I love the job and I've met really amazing colleagues here. I sadly also know this company was responsible in the past for not exactly the most positive behaviour... think of the opioids crisis of the 2000s, to make a really basic example.
I didn't know this was going on until this video John, so I'll try my best in making my voice heard, despite being nothing but the smallest gear in a colossal pharmaceutical engine.
Also, amazing that you referenced Our Credo! :D That is something that as an employee I was told on my very first day to always keep into count... so of course I will try my best to make it so that those words are something that my company can live up to.
Lots of love for you and Hank!
Thank you for doing what you can Emme!
+
+
Wow! John, it’s wonderful to see how easily you and your brother can use your influence for good. Johnson and Johnson was avoiding bad press when their greed was spotlighted.
I prefer to thank you for shining the light on the problem.
Thank you!!!!
This problem plagues pretty much all American pharmaceutical companies and it is NOT OKAY. As a person with chronic illness this is something I think about everyday and I hope more people start to pay attention to pharmacy companies abusing public interest! Patients can't be the only ones who care about this.
our country has been forsaking judao/ christian values for a long time, and it's negatively effecting every part of life.
Yep. Unfortunately, basically no-one cares until they get chronically ill. My disease is one of the top thre most expensive to treat in the US. More expensive than most cancers, and I’ve had it for 31 years.
This problem is called "capitalism".
@@racerx4152 Funny. I'll redirect you the Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
@racerx4152 No, it didn't. If anything the U.S. has gotten better by forsaking those beliefs. Far more queer people can be out without the fear of all of society not accepting them at all. (There's still a lot of queerphobia and issues but it's far better now.)
Racism isn't as bad. (Christianity in the U.S. is forever mixed with white supermercy.)
Purity culture has only ever hurt people and especially women.
‘They think they can get away with this because they think we’re not paying attention’ 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
I’ve recently started fundraising for a fabulous charity called MercyShips and being part of the vlogbrothers community for many years has showed me that a platform like this can do immense good. 🙏❤️
❤❤💖💖 TY!
EMMA IS A NERDFIGHTERI??? This is the collab of a lifetime ❤
@@treblemaker33 OF COURSE!! ;D
So happy to see you here! Thanks for the help! Let’s all come together.
@@ScarryGargoyle Woohoo! I definitely had lots of people telling me 'don't put that video about that charity on your channel that'll destroy the momentum etc etc' but then I think well, Hank and John do it brilliantly, I'll try! Glad we did!! 🥰
It is honestly astonishing how we continue to let people die by the millions because we wanna make some extra money. We NEED to be better, and I hope we will be. Thank you John
It's not we? It is always the same people, the wealth hoarders at the top who rake in hundreds of millions while pricing sick people out of life.
For real, we the average people, aren't even profiting off of this. Only the big wigs in charge are. A handle full of people getting rich off of letting people die😔.
Blame the Government. They’re the ones who allow this and enforce it.
@@Jake-Day Blame the american people for it is their will that keeps things the way it is.
It's not "we" (as in humanity)... it's the greedy few
Preach!! 🙌 People aren’t paying attention to what’s happening right in front of us.
Submitted my review to their company site. For anyone wondering, it only takes about 4 minutes. 👍🏼
For anyone who doesn’t have the time to type, feel free to copy/paste my statement in your report:
“The current Johnson & Johnson plan to evergreen its patent on TB medication Bedaquiline represents a monumental breach of company values. Despite J&J’s commitment to its patients, this decision will undoubtedly lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of them.
I sincerely hope that voices of reason and compassion for humanity prevail in this situation so that Johnson & Johnson can once again be viewed as an organization which puts its patients first.”
+++
thank you for your service 💪💪💪
Thank you so much
What region did you say that this concerned?
@@FirstmateRouge I selected Ghana, though I’ll admit that I did not know what the most appropriate selection would be.
John, could you make an organizational sign-on letter on this issue that other organizations could join? I'm Executive Director of a Disability Rights nonprofit in Boston, and (while our capacity is quite limited) we would gladly add our name to this fight, and I think we'd be far from the only ones.
+
Bump
+
Just filed my complaint with J&J at ethics point. Thanks so much for making me aware of this! Will always fight against evergreen patents as a type one diabetic with need of insulin I have been personally victimized. But this cannot happen to TB patients!
Agreed. This can't happen to anyone. It's a violation of human rights imo
@@elmastro-ye9lw if I boycott everyone who sell their products, I can't buy medicine anymore. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure every pharmacy/drugstore where I live sells their products
You’re amazing John. Thank you for fighting this bs.
Your example of Neosporin is right on. I DO buy name-brand Neosporin over the generic, as I do with Children's Tylenol, because I figure I know who made it-even though I know the generic is probably just as good. I think you've convinced me that maybe I need to rethink that.
I used to work at Unilever so therefore have a lot of former colleagues who now work at JnJ. I will be sure to pass this along ❤️ Cause as a former employee of a large company one of my favorite activities is dismantling atrocities from the inside 😏
It's utterly insane that life-saving drugs can be patented at all. They should all be made public domain the second they're discovered
This. Who's to say the researchers at JNJ wouldn't ha r just EAs easily discovered the drug at a public institution?
The whole issue is the discovery part - drug development is CRAZY expensive. There’s a reason that a handful of huge corporations develop the vast majority of drugs. In the US it takes a billion dollars to create a drug and take it to market due to all of the work and safety testing involved, which in other countries is funded by the government/ their version of the FDA, but in the US is funded by the company itself. The ability to patent drugs and sell them for profit is exactly what makes that billion dollar investment worth it. If you remove to ability to patent drugs you remove the incentive for companies to develop drugs at all. I completely agree that this whole system is broken and immoral, but there is no easy fix.
Congrats, you've found a way to get no new drugs ever again.
By far THE most effective way to get new drugs and medicine is the free market, and that requires protections for investment, or nobody will EVER risk developing and testing new drugs ever again.
You can't fix this with government funds, by the way. Just look at the US military; they pay 10x-100x too much for virtually everything. Trying to shift over to government research would result in a 90-99% loss in efficiency.
Exactly, capitalism is the tool of the devil.
@@Kimmie9553 How about government funding for testing, as you say is done elsewhere?
I think this will go down in history as the best vlogbrothers video ever posted by the channel
The unregulated monetization of modern medicine is such a horrible thing.
What? It is regulated... That is the entire problem. What do you think a patent is?
Patents exist because no one came up with a better idea for a system to reward research. If you don't have patents and your competitors can just sell your goods at cost you have no way to recover the research cost. If you have a reasonable idea for a different system an economics nobel prize is probably waiting for you. (No, let the state pay for it is not a system, because who then decides which research proposals get funded - not all of them can be funded)
As someone who survived PTB (it was painful and thought I was gonna died without knowing why breathing feels like drowning), this withholding of access to life-saving measures is INFURIATING.
J&J IS GONNA HEAR FROM ME.
+
I am going to write them such a sternly worded letter!!
-The UN
+
I work in advertising. I haven't had the... "pleasure"... of working on anything for J&J, but I've done work for their competitors across dozens of different markets. And... the only compelling case that can be made to them (and any other company that they compete against) is a case of money: Unless people's behaviors *directly* threaten their bottom line, they won't change a thing about their ethics nor their business practices. That's it - that's got to be "the" strategy, because they don't (and won't) care about anything else. They don't care about PR or optics, nor do they care about public sentiment. At this point, they don't even really care about regulatory bodies because they (like their competitors) simply find "creative" ways to grease those wheels - often times outright breaking the law in doing so (which always goes unpunished, because... well, it's the very regulatory bodies they're indirectly bribing that would be the ones responsible to do things about it in the first place).
At this point, obviously, it becomes hard to say "I'm going to boycott J&J" and then follow through, especially if you're a person who's dependant on their drugs to, you know, live. *But* - in all other instances - if people want to see change, then they need to not only demand change, but show companies like J&J what happens when they *don't* change: Don't buy their products, and don't buy products from companies that are partnered with J&J or utilize J&J somewhere in their supply chain. The more we, collectively, work to threaten their bottom line, the more willing they will be to change their behavior.
Right on the money (no pun intended). We have to go after their profit. I haven't touched anything from them in quite a lot of years now, even though they are *huge* in Scandinavia where I live. Most of my friends don't use their products either, but we can only do so much. We need a BIG ass boycott from people who are in a position where they *can* boycott them. I'm not suggesting that people who need their products, and there isn't any generic or otherwise equal product to what they use, should stop taking their medicine. But if there's an equal product to what they are using - SWITCH! (As long as it's truly equal). You don't need those exact wipes, there are hundreds of others. You don't need that exact baby oil, there are hundreds of others, and so on. That's where I stand.
EXACTLY.....HURT J&J's pockets and not buy their products immediately over a period of time.....
@@tessiepinkman exactly. It's also important to boycott their partner companies - that way they lose multiple revenue streams at the same time.
Ok well since not only are most drugs sold by them, but also most health and hygiene and wellness products, what I am hearing is I cannot affect their bottom line as they essentially have a monopoly on essentials. I’m also not hearing that it is time for an armed uprising against-and I say this unironically- our corporate overlords. When does that option go on the table?
I have been on a mostly off-the-internet vacation for the last two weeks and I didn't have wifi from Monday until Thursday and I'm IMMENSELY disappointed that I missed Nerdfighteria and its adjacent communities (lead by, of course, the Stop TB Partnership) pressuring J&J into doing the right thing here. But I'm SO amazed that in those few days I was offline, we were able to accomplish such an incredible thing. This community is so incredible and I cannot wait for us to continue harnessing our collective power to decrease massive amounts of worldsuck. DFTBA, y'all ❤
Seeing all the comments on J&J's Facebook about bedaquiline makes me get all teary eyed. This community is amazing. I am so proud to be a Nerdfighter.
same. ^^
Thanks for speaking up about this, John. The work you've done on advocating against this disease, and not just spreading information but taking action is great. The same thing that we see here is what happened during the pandemic too, and it feels like there's not enough attention paid to these things until a chain reaction derailing a lot of people's lives happens.
“during the pandemic” oh i wish i could live in the blissful ignorance you do. look up recent disability figures, long covid and the stigma is a MAJOR. problem
There is no attention paid until there is a direct threat posed to our wealthy overlords.
Then they will take half hearted measures in ways that primarily maintain the status quo.
+
@@ilovebirds23 I'm not ignorant, I'm very well aware of the figures. The pandemic was just the most blaring example, and though the same kind of discrimination takes place every single day, the sheer urgency and scale at which this happened, with entire countries which made up huge chunks of population (including mine) being denied certain vaccines due to patents was a huge issue, which only contributed to the spread of the newer variants. It's also the most relevant example considering the fact that John mentioned that this could very well lead to another pandemic. I never insinuated that these things aren't happening now.
i suffer from lung disease, treateable but non-curable. in fact i am once again hospitaized for an exacerabation right now. if i knew there was a drug that could save me i would never stop yelling until everyone had access. thank you for this information, for having such an important special interest, and for caring so much about your fellow humans. you and your brother are true examples of everyday heroes and we are a much richer population because you share yourselves with the world.
This is such a beautiful comment. I hope your hospitalization is as comfortable as possible and that you're able to return home soon!
Americans with asthma (another treatable, but noncurable lung disease) have suffered from similar drug price-gouging and evergreening with the most common asthma drugs, including albuterol and advair inhalers. Same kinds of patent loopholes letting them extend patents and prevent generics from going on the market. These companies are only too happy to kill people to make money.
I hope you get better soon. I know how scary it is not being able to breathe! I'll keep you in my thoughts.
DIRECT ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!
They've already backed down thanks to the campaign.
I think the coolest thing about this is how easy you made it to voice an opinion to J&J for anyone who sees this video. I just submitted a report to them. Thank you for helping me learn how to be a force for good in the world, John!
I sent a story idea regarding this issue to NPR. This is the type of thing that they absolutely cover. Let's hope we hear it on one of their shows.
As I approach old age and reflect on how this country has changed over the course of my lifetime, I really appreciate you and the message you put out there. When I was a teenager in the 80’s you could still lose your job, apartment and family if you were outed. Sexism, racism and homophobia were far more prevalent than they are now. Women can and do have better access to good jobs, but we still have a long way to go. One thing that’s been changing at an exponentially faster pace is the corporatization of EVERYTHING, and the drive for profit that’s destroying small businesses, creating homogeneous communities, individual lives suffer. Small businesses suffer. Businesses are for People. The economy exists to serve the human race. But we’ve forgotten all about caring for each other, in a big way. When I was a kid, we were taught civic duty. That we, as individuals, have a duty to our community. We care for the elderly, the disabled, the vulnerable. We pick up litter, we volunteer in community gardens. We care for and about others. When we see an injured person or a stray animal or a car accident or a house on fire. We HELP each other. There is still a powerful current of this running through us. I’m totally on board. This is important! Preventable deaths or biggER profit? ❤❤❤
The balance between monetary capital and social capital has gone out of whack. It started with Regan’s trickle down economics, the idea that strong corporations lead to strong communities. It didn’t work. In order for capitalism to function, that balance must be restored. The idea that massive salaries to executives and massive profits are okay needs to stop.
"Companies exist to serve the human race." I'd like to put this another way: "Companies exist to provide a service to the human race." I keep clapping back with this line at people with those who insist "cOmPAnIEs ExISt tO mAkE a PRofIT." If the vast majority of a life-changing/life-saving/life-altering *thing* no matter what it is, cannot access that service due to exorbitant prices or some other inaccessibility, then they are not actually providing a service.
@@karenneill9109 Capitalism is functioning exactly how it’s supposed to. To quote Warren Buffett: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
@@Tofu_va_Bien Of course a ridiculously rich person would say that. He can’t possibly spend all his money, and his family will be set for their lives too. Why does he need more? It’s selfish, and imbalanced when there are hungry people living on the street. It’s repugnant.
@@karenneill9109 For sure, but capitalist society rewards people for behaving this way. It’s repugnant, but unsurprising.
Thank you for all the good you do in the world.
Hi John. I spent a lot of time carefully drafting my complaint and then submitted it via the Credo Integrity complaint portal. Thank you for bringing this situation to the light - as a US taxpayer whose dues were no doubt apportioned to fund the research for this drug, I feel it's time to end Johnson & Johnson's seemingly unnecessary SPP and to allow generics onto the market.
Good on you 👏👏👏❤❤❤
Thank you for your support! Our efforts and the efforts of the scientists and patients over at StopTB and the GDF have worked! Announcement came out a few hours ago! The generic versions are going to be made available. 🎉
If people looked into the history of these long standing huge conglomerate companies, they would be floored by the amount of horrible business/safety practices and market manipulation to essentially destroy competition. Patents on medications are just the tip of the iceberg imo. I've got some complaints to send in too, for sure.
This is new. I’m a medical student in Nepal, where Tuberculosis still runs rampant and almost every household has a patient suffering from TB or has a history of TB sometime in the past. Yet, we haven’t even been taught about this drug, forget prescribing it to patients! The antitubercular regimen currently being followed has showed large amounts of resistance and let alone being able to buy this medicine it isn’t even talked about and is placed as the last resort in the national guidelines!
Dang
Well, it sounds like it might only take sharing this video for an entire country to be breathing down j&js neck.
Wow. You seem to have an internet connection to watch videos, so it does surprise me that if it's such a common disease this treatment seems to be unknown there, when googling it once should give you that answer.
@@phoenix9531definitely! I meant to focus on the fact that even if it’s on the national guidelines, this drug isn’t offered here or isn’t easily available
Hank and John have never let me down in the 10 years I’ve watched them/consumed their content. I love their devotion to combatting corrupt pharmaceutical companies that prohibit the American public from obtaining the resources they need.
The public, period. This is a people issue, not an American issue.
@@azuradawn5683 I know. In my line of work which is Social Work, I mostly focus on American domestic policies and companies which halter the progress of the public
@@azuradawn5683 disagree. In my native Canada, and most European countries, socialised medicine makes this illegal domestically. To sell drugs here, you have to submit the recipe to authorities to provide generics. Even cutting edge meds always have a generic option. They're viewed as lower quality, so if you have a good prescription benefits (not covered by socialised medicine), you spring for the trademarks.
That is to say, this is uniquely an American and (respecting American patents) foreign aid issue.
John, I’m thankful for you, your work and your compassionate heart. As someone from one of those poor countries, THANK YOU
DESPITE ALL MY RAGE I'M STILL JUST A NERD IN A CAGE.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Shared and letter sent. Patent laws for life-saving medication and any means of using that medication needs to change. We shouldn't have to appeal to a company's humanity to prevent unnecessary death.
+
Especially of most or *all* of the funding for research came from public money 💰
Especially because companies like this have made clear early on that they have no humanity to appeal to. For anyone who remembers either of their asbestos baby product or vaginal mesh scandals, this ain't their first rodeo.
I have my orders. This requires urgency. I can’t believe this is even a discussion. Count on me to help get the word out! Thanks, John. You’re doing noble work.
Remember to get your booster as well from the same companies that want to do this!
@tylerpixel
And therein lies the problem with the idea of boycotting medical companies. You really can't, not without sacrificing yourself, and that's a hell of a choice to make. Should people "just" stop buying the meds keeping them alive because the company is holding their life hostage for profit? Should people "just" dismiss all preventive medicine because of these sharks?
I don’t think anyone is suggesting a boycott, but to hold them accountable to their company’s mission statement. They have the key to a life saving treatment that really affects a specific part of the world and there is no reason to make it inaccessible to the ones affected the most.
@@Rachel-fi4sc Maybe we should stop allowing them to exploit our ailments for profit then. We could learn something from 1789 France.
@@staceyduncanbts486 There are some people in the comments calling for boycott, but I was more replying to Tyler Pixel talking about getting vaccine boosters made by such companies.
Four years ago I needed to be screened for TB before getting accepted into a residential mental health program. It felt so odd because I thought it was a relatively unheard of illness nowadays. But watching your videos, and reading your tweets on it, it’s honestly horrifying that we don’t hear more about it 😞 Thank-you for speaking out about this, and educating us as you do it!
I've worked directly with homeless populations, and going into it I also thought TB was a thing of the past and totally unheard of for decades, but you wouldn't believe how outrageously common it is among homeless populations (especially with a past instance of incarceration or friends who were). To make it worse, they also often are infected with HIV, which lowers their immunity even further and can make untreated TB even more of a deadly disease. It's absurd that we, as a society, let this things happen. We should have eradicated this in all populations, not leave vulnerable ones to deal with it!
Ive been screen for tb many times in my life
I became a pharmacy technician a couple years ago... learning how these companies can pull this ish both blew my mind and made me cry. When a drug is made, the creators get to be called the "name brand" and get to have YEARS of the market before generics can be made. It's sickening.
I don’t know anyone personally effected by TB but I will be sure to call in and inform J&J of their poor choices.
My child played volleyball in High School in the US. Her coach ended up having a supposedly dormant case of TB. We were upset. I also know of people coming from other countries, mainly south America who have had it. This is why employers require the TB test every few years.
I mean. We are all personally affected by TB everyday. And have been for thousands of years. Through how it has shaped, is shaping, and will shape our world by the lives it has ended far too soon, by the money and infrastructure spent on keeping it in poor countries and the fact that your money is going to research for treatments for drugs to fight drug resistant TB because of unequal access. That's your money. That's your parents and grandparents money. Would you rather it be able to go to like fighting climate change or something? TB affects us all.
I feel like all your content about tuberculosis was specifically to build up to this moment and I am HERE for it.
There's something to be said about how what started as a nerdy obsession has evolved into an impassioned call to protest.
I believe we can all come together and pressure Johnson and Johnson to do the right thing. Thank you for lighting this spark, John.
John, I served you and some of the Crash Course folks a few years ago in Theater 1 at Flix (nerding out and not able to list everything I'm a fan of). At the time, I felt like I couldn't find the words to express how much you and Hank have inspired my own younger brother and I, as well as so many others. To the same extent, I was dumbfounded to see on Philly D that this video and its viewers had made such a profound impact in ONLY 2 DAYS!!! Just had to stop by again to spread encouragement and support the movement!!
Filed a report online. Was almost too lazy to do so, but it’d be monumentally selfish of me not to try and stop this. Report didn’t take very long to file and you can do so anonymously if that’s a concern for you. Thanks for sharing, John.
Report, where? Could you give me some buzzwords to google, youtube eats up links.
@@goingslowlynowhereThere are some links in de description box, the first one links directly to their report page
Thanks for letting me know it’s not too hard
I'm trying as well, but whats the market where the issue occured? :/
@@merelha5930 Duh! Thank you! I was "staring myself blind", and count not find it. Second time today, somehow, the juice box in the fridge invented a invisibility cloak.
Off to the links I go :)
As someone who recovered from tb, (not that this makes my opinion more important) I agree
Thank you for raising the alarm on an issue that I likely would have not heard about otherwise. I will be submitting a complaint through their website, and I hope everyone will too. It is an honor to be a part of this community that fights for humanity and justice
^
you could post a template here! defo not your obligation tho
THIS is an influencer! Influencing should be more like this. Thank you for using your platform for this issue!
I work at JNJ (on surgical robots, not pharma or consumer products) but this greatly greatly upsets me. Will try to get some traction from the inside.
I really admire your ability to (barely) contain your rage so you can effectively use it not just to scream and shout, but to communicate and have meaningful conversations about what needs to be done. I see a lot of that in Nerdfighteria and I'm so proud of us for containing our rage and putting it to good use.
Scishow encouraged me to go back to school (I am 34), in two years I will get my degree in engineering. I can't wait to have the finances to help donate. In the meantime, I will help by echoing your concerns!
This is a truly beautiful effort. Thank you, John, and everyone who saw this and made a difference.
I work in healthcare because I want to make the world a better place. It’s sad that some corporations fail to see how much harm they are causing to the people they say they’re trying to help.
Thank you John (and Hank) for pointing out injustices in the world and demonstrating how individuals can help make a difference.
I let J&J know that they are violating their credo and love how many of these comments are others doing the same ❤
It's disgusting that they didn't fail to see how much harm they're causing. They see it and they don't care because all they see is money.
Yes they are and their credo is a LIE!!!
Simply completely avoid this companies products!!!
It's the govt thats the problem, not corporations.
Lol. Some corporations. Sure. Some
@@Rothbard_is_God8082actually its both because the corporations lobby with the government
Just shared with the 24 Co-ops at MSU in Michigan! I’m gonna see what organizations here might be interested in getting involved. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!!
Thank you John. I'm a unionized J&J factory worker and I promise to make a big fuss over this.
Doing my job for the last couple years has meant playing a tiny role in saving millions of lives, and I won't let the buck pass me and my machines.
Thank you.
I work for J&J as well & filed a complaint and gave my WWID. They need to know that their employees are angry as well. This is a clear CREDO violation.
You probably will never read this, but THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO HUMANITY!!! ❤Your efforts are admirable beyond words. YOU used your platform for a selfless and incredibly worthy cause that gets far too little attention and in turn have arguably saved potentially millions of lives. It may not be perfect but it’s a major battle won. You got the ball rolling and the tides have turned. I stand ready as a loyal nerdfighter to continue this ongoing fight.
This man's faith that actual human beings with feelings and compassion run Johnson & Johnson is inspiring, and though it is a level of faith that I do not share it would be nice to be wrong.
Millions in revenue and potential bonuses for me _or_ millions of (mostly poor, black and brown) people I don't know die but I face no legal repercussions and I might be sacked for not maximising profit enough. It's not just this company, it's the incentives in the whole damn system.
‘We can convince Johnson and Johnson.’
They already knew what they were doing is incredibly evil.
I'm not proposing we appeal to their morals. I'm proposing that we overwhelm them with negative attention and make it in their best interest to withdraw the patent extension applications. -John
❤love it, totally agree. Sorry if my comment came off as snarky or dismissive, I honestly didn’t know about the news. Thanks for reporting it.
Implying this will harmtheir bank accounts will matter fsr more to them and we know it.
@@vlogbrothers I saw a lecture years ago by the one who created the Psychopath inventory. He said large businesses started using it in hiring to select FOR the trait, and he predicted that business behavior would get a lot worse as they rose through the ranks to positions of power. It seems his predictions are playing out, so your strategy is 100% correct. You can't reason with Psychopaths. But if you understand that they ARE likely psychopaths, you can create strategies to deal with it. I applaud you for sensing it without hearing the Doctor's talk. Assume they are psychopaths and you will likely succeed.
Thank you for addressing this in a nuanced way while still pointing out the obvious: this is a publicly funded resource that belongs now to the public
Wow this is super informative and scary and upsetting. Thanks for bringing to our attention.
I could not be more proud of you for raging against the machine and CHANGING THE WORLD!!!!!!
I hope that if I ever have a platform such as Hank & John, I'm able to make as much of a difference in the world as they do. I have massive respect for both of them.
Sometimes I forget that Vlogbrothers isn’t one of the “biggest” channels around (subscribers/views) because it truly is one of the most impactful channels I’ve ever encountered. This community makes so much meaningful stuff happen, and has been doing so for decades now.
Shared to my friends!
I live with Type One Diabetes, and it breaks my heart to hear stories of folks dying due to the high cost of insulin. If I can do a small thing like email J&J to put a stop to similar, unnecessary tragedies, I will! I can’t imagine a better way to spend my lunch break! ❤
Thanks John for all the work you do to make a difference in the world. You’re my inspiration!
Eli Lily needs to go down. They’re the poster child of aggressive evergreening of patents.
Typing out a message may be hard for some of you. Please feel free to use mine. Thank you, John for bringing this to our attention.
Hi,
I know you running the social media are decent people and are not to blame for this. But I believe you have greater power than me to effect change. I urge you to honor your company credo to put patients first and save millions of lives by not enforcing the secondary patent on bedaquiline. Not only is this absolutely the right thing to do for the people but also will this prevent a tarnishing of your brand reputation.
I look forward to your response.
A deeply concerned customer.
Ty!
Would you edit the drug name to be correctly spelled? Many people won't catch it and we want J&J to have no doubt about what we're taking about!
Thank you so much for offering this!
@@SimoraCheeks1 Great catch, thanks! Fixed it 😊
From the future: We won! Great job John!! Your righteous rage is what this world needs.
Much appreciation from a fellow Hoosier.
I would also consider setting a reminder for 7-10 days to go access the 'Follow Up On A Report' feature on the website. There's always a possibility that they have metrics on how many reports are filed and then never thought about again, vs those that generate recurrent attention on the issue. I don't have any knowledge that they definitely look at that, but big companies love metrics, and so could be worth checking out, on the off change that it might show them that you intend to continue to pay attention to this issue. (Also I don't know what exactly the follow up option shows you, but might as well try)
+
+
That works, and is just another 5 min fiddle-job to do. Thanks :)