What’s in This Week’s Issue…

Good morning. When you’re at the pharmacy paying $100 for a drug that costs $12 in Canada, it feels unfair. But most people shrug and say, “That’s just how the U.S. healthcare system works.“

What they don’t see is how much of that price isn’t for the pill.

It’s for something else…

Pharma companies say it’s the price to fund innovation, but the truth is: they’ve quietly figured out how to make more from protecting old drugs than inventing new ones.

So this week…

• 🏆 The Big Play: How Pharma quietly shifted from selling pills to selling patents and why it is making your prescription drug so expensive

• 💪 The Power Move: How you can build leverage like Big Pharma

• 💵 Follow the Money: How the global tariff war is changing the multi-billion dollar business of sports

-GEN

🏆 The Big Play

The biggest money power story of the week.

How Big Pharma Profits When You Get Sick

In theory, drug patents exist for a clear reason: they reward innovation.

You invent a life-saving drug, and the government gives you a 20-year monopoly to recoup the costs and fund the next breakthrough.

It was a simple idea and a fair trade that incentivized innovation in exchange for exclusivity.

But what started as a well-intentioned system now resembles something else entirely: pharma companies didn’t need to invent new drugs. They just needed to reinvent the rules.

Here's what really happened and why your medicines are costing a fortune now:

1. The Patent Game: How Monopoly Became the Business Model

In 1984, the U.S. passed the Hatch-Waxman Act, a law designed to help generic drugs enter the market while still protecting brand-name ones.

Instead, pharma companies found the cheat codes.

They didn’t just patent the drug. They patented everything around it:

• New dosages, pill coatings, and delivery methods

• Slight molecular tweaks, even “methods of use”

• And then they stacked those dozens of patents, sometimes even hundreds, to legally protect the drug

This wasn’t about protecting ideas anymore. It was about extending monopolies. And once that game started paying off, the incentives flipped.

Pharma was no longer in the business of making new drugs.

It was in the business of owning them.

2. The Rise of “Me-Too“ Drugs and Legal Moats

And once that happened, innovation stopped.

Instead, pharma companies doubled down on “me-too” drugs.

No, not #metoo, but slight tweaks of existing best-sellers.

AbbVie's blockbuster drug, Humira, perfectly illustrates how pharma companies made a never-ending money printer:

• Humira is one of the highest-grossing drugs in the world, making over $200 billion in revenue over 20 years.

• At one point, it had 132 patents for minor tweaks like new dosages and delivery devices.

• In Europe, Humira's Biosimilars entered the market in 2018. In the U.S.? Not until 2023.

• Since the end of 2016, when its initial patent ended, AbbVie has made an extra $114 billion from Humira.

• While the annual cost of Humira is about $30,000 in the U.K. and Canada, it exceeds well over $75,000 in the U.S. All perfectly legal.

Humira is just one example:

• Gilead’s HIV drug Truvada was developed with taxpayer funding. It still costs $2,000/month in the U.S.

• Even your 100-year-old insulin is protected by "new" patents, keeping U.S. prices artificially inflated.

Pharma's profits increasingly come not from pills, but patents.

And that comes at a very real, very human cost.

3. So, Who Really Pays for Pharma’s Patents?

You do.

Every patent extension and loophole adds to your pharmacy bill, and you probably don’t even know it:

• Americans pay 2x to 3x more for drugs than people in other developed countries

• Nearly 30% of U.S. adults skip prescriptions because of cost.

• Only three companies supply insulin in the United States, making it the costliest in the entire world.

And if you’re wondering why this hasn’t changed, look at who holds the power:

• Big Pharma spent nearly $294 million on lobbying in 2024, more than defense and oil combined.

• Revolving doors between the FDA and pharma leadership ensure no one closes the loopholes.

Big Pharma has created a system designed to funnel wealth upward, quietly and relentlessly.

It proves that the system wasn’t broken. It was always built this way.

💪 The Power Moves

Playbook for understanding the game of power.

How to Build Leverage Like Big Pharma

Pharma’s shift from pills to patents didn't happen overnight, and it didn’t happen by accident.

It happened because pharma understood something very important:

Whoever controls the rules controls the profits.

Big Pharma didn't break any rules, they mastered them. They turned regulations, patent laws, and FDA loopholes into their strongest competitive advantage.

This lesson isn't just about pharmaceuticals. It's about how money and leverage really work across industries and markets.

The Takeaway:

So, instead of chasing innovation alone, start paying attention to how the rules around you are made and how you can shape them or position yourself within them.

Innovation may create opportunities, but leverage creates unfair advantages.

Because why go through all that trouble when you can copy and paste billions?

💵 Following the Money

Three of the wildest financial and corruption stories from around the world.

#1 - How the global tariff war is changing the world of sports?

#2 - US confirms Chinese satellite firm helping Houthi rebels target ships

#3 - Former Google CEO predicts AI will replace most programmers in a year

✨ Poll time!

📰 Keep Reading…