<story><title>FDA approves intranasal esketamine formulation</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/health/depression-treatment-ketamine-fda.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>randomacct3847</author><text>Actually I just read that Esketamine is patented while Ketamine is not, even though it’s essentially the same thing. So JNJ can charge these ridiculous prices because they changed one small thing about the drug so they could slapped a patent on it.</text></item><item><author>mirimir</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re paying for their patent on the delivery system ;)&lt;p&gt;Edit: It&amp;#x27;s a common delusion that pharmaceuticals are sold for therapeutic uses. Actually, they&amp;#x27;re a mechanism to monetize intellectual property.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Oops. For having just the active isomer.&lt;p&gt;Edit: That comment about monetizing intellectual property comes from an expert economist :)</text></item><item><author>randomacct3847</author><text>Interesting that there doesn’t seem to be a therapy component to the treatment...meaning you’re just going to a clinic to sort of watch over you as you take it.&lt;p&gt;The price of $3k for 8 doses is so high compared to regular ketamine. I wonder if there is any real difference or if you’re really just paying for the comfort of doing it legally under the guidance of a doctor.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>09bjb</author><text>Welcome to pharmaceuticals in general (and many of the biggest biotech companies, come to think of it). I didn&amp;#x27;t find the exact number in a cursory search, but I&amp;#x27;ve read that a fairly preposterous proportion of the drugs that have ever been produced are (unpatentable) plant molecules that were deliberately reverse-engineered and tweaked for patentability.</text></comment>
<story><title>FDA approves intranasal esketamine formulation</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/health/depression-treatment-ketamine-fda.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>randomacct3847</author><text>Actually I just read that Esketamine is patented while Ketamine is not, even though it’s essentially the same thing. So JNJ can charge these ridiculous prices because they changed one small thing about the drug so they could slapped a patent on it.</text></item><item><author>mirimir</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re paying for their patent on the delivery system ;)&lt;p&gt;Edit: It&amp;#x27;s a common delusion that pharmaceuticals are sold for therapeutic uses. Actually, they&amp;#x27;re a mechanism to monetize intellectual property.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Oops. For having just the active isomer.&lt;p&gt;Edit: That comment about monetizing intellectual property comes from an expert economist :)</text></item><item><author>randomacct3847</author><text>Interesting that there doesn’t seem to be a therapy component to the treatment...meaning you’re just going to a clinic to sort of watch over you as you take it.&lt;p&gt;The price of $3k for 8 doses is so high compared to regular ketamine. I wonder if there is any real difference or if you’re really just paying for the comfort of doing it legally under the guidance of a doctor.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>marssaxman</author><text>&amp;quot;Esketamine&amp;quot; is just the S-isomer of ketamine (thus &amp;quot;S-ketamine&amp;quot;), which has conventionally been an equal (&amp;quot;racemic&amp;quot;) mixture of the S- and R-isomers. It&amp;#x27;s not so much that they&amp;#x27;ve changed anything about the drug as that they&amp;#x27;ve isolated the variant which is more psychoactive.</text></comment>