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I Own Danaher

2024-03-26 · letter vlog · John · 5:05 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Economics) · mode: Advocacy & fundraising · tags: timely hook, civic or action cta, self promotion, heavy topic

John asks viewers to sign a petition for Danaher and Cepheid to cut test prices in low- and middle-income countries, revealing he bought a small Danaher stake; he argues that since Danaher says it must serve shareholders, only reputational cost greater than its overcharging profit will move it.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Three things: John's Washington Post essay, the new Crash Course lecture on tuberculosis, and Danaher backstory

  • ★★ John has an essay about tuberculosis in the Washington Post. — 00:00:00 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ There is a new Crash Course lecture about the history of tuberculosis. — 00:00:00 · Crash Course Lectures, tuberculosis
  • ★★ John explains that Cepheid, owned by the conglomerate Danaher, makes GeneXpert tests, the best available TB tests; similar cartridges test for HIV, hepatitis or extensively drug-resistant TB. — 00:00:00 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says the community recently helped pressure Danaher to lower the price of its standard TB test cartridge, letting literally millions more people a year access high-quality testing. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria

00:00:40 — The petition for lower test prices, and who does and doesn't benefit from Danaher's markup

  • ★★ John says the tests for XDR-TB, HIV and hepatitis remain far too expensive, so several organizations are asking for lower prices in low- and middle-income countries; viewers can sign their petition. — 00:00:40 · doobly-doo
  • ★★★ John argues signing this petition is not a shout into the void: Danaher has responded to polite but insistent pressure, and such pressure seems the only way to change its system. — 00:00:40
  • ★★ John says Danaher charges an over 300% markup in the world's poorest countries for, say, an HIV test. — 00:01:09
  • ★★ John says poor communities, people with HIV (for whom quality testing is harder to access than it should be) and the social order do not benefit from the markup. — 00:01:09 · the social order
  • ★★ John cites Partners In Health: in every country where it works, a lower cost per cartridge would let it expand access significantly. — 00:01:09 · Partners In Health
  • ★★ John argues most Danaher employees don't benefit either: Cepheid's workers went into lab and tech work to make transformative tests, not piles of money, and want maximal societal benefit. — 00:01:38
  • ★★ John says there is plenty of money to be made in rich countries to fund the research and the employees' livelihoods. — 00:01:38

00:02:08 — John reveals he is a Danaher shareholder, the legal duty to shareholders, and why he bought a stake

  • ★★★ John reveals that the only person who benefits from Danaher's price gouging is, for lack of a better term, him: Danaher is publicly traded and he is a shareholder. — 00:02:08
  • ★★ John says that in the current system Danaher has a responsibility to its shareholders and is legally obligated to act in their best interest because they own the company. — 00:02:08
  • ★★ As far as John understands Danaher's position, it feels it cannot make decisions that would harm shareholders even when they would benefit all of humanity. (hedged) — 00:02:08
  • ★★★ John recently bought a tiny slice of Danaher, partly to thank it for lowering the standard TB cartridge price, mostly so he can attend certain meetings and talk with other shareholders about how they profit from price gouging the world's poorest. — 00:02:37
  • ★★ John says each Danaher shareholder makes about a dollar per share in profit dividends every year. — 00:02:37

00:03:06 — Dividends and profits, and why reputational cost from petitions and publicity can change Danaher

  • ★★ John says his dividends come to only about $10, but Danaher's co-founders Steven and Mitchell Rales each make over $25 million a year just in dividends. — 00:03:06
  • ★★ John says Danaher makes over $4 billion a year in profit, and less than 1% of it comes from Cepheid overcharging for tests in low- and middle-income countries. — 00:03:06
  • ★★★ John argues that if a company's primary obligation is to shareholders rather than employees, customers or the social order, the only way to make Danaher do right is reputational harm exceeding its profit from overcharging the poor. — 00:03:06 · the social order
  • ★★ John argues petitions help: five or ten thousand people with a negative opinion of a company who care enough to sign make it harder to recruit and more expensive to market. — 00:03:54
  • ★★ John notes negative publicity for Danaher in the Washington Post and on Threads, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, including a lower-your-test-prices Flappy Bird he finds utterly addictive. (playful) — 00:03:54 · Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
  • ★★ John praises Danaher employees who have been heroically speaking up, making it pretty expensive not to lower test prices. — 00:04:23
  • ★★ John hopes the cost gets high enough that Danaher lowers prices not just for the standard TB test but for all its tests in low- and middle-income countries. (hedged) — 00:04:23 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says that if they haven't yet made it expensive enough, they will continue until they do. — 00:04:23 · Nerdfighteria

00:04:52 — Final ask to sign the petition and sign-off

  • ★★★ John asks viewers to sign the petition linked below and keep asking Danaher to lower its prices; this shareholder would appreciate it. — 00:04:52

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description asks viewers to join TBFighters and its Discord organizing work, and to tell Danaher, @danahercorporation on most social media, that this is not okay. — video description
  • ★★ In a comment, John says poor communities are locked into Danaher tests because they own its machines, exactly the printer-and-ink business model; an Indian firm's cheaper alternative will take years to scale. — creator comment
  • ★ Answering a viewer's disagreement, John says he was in Washington for systemic reform, but until then emergencies need emergency responses; reforming systems to prioritize the poor is the only lasting solution. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Danaher Corporation · price gouging · shareholder primacy · tuberculosis

Also: People: Mitchell Rales · Steven Rales

Works: Flappy Bird

Organizations: Cepheid · Facebook · Instagram · Partners In Health · The Washington Post · Threads · Twitter

Terms: doobly-doo · the social order

Concepts: extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis · HIV/AIDS

Products: GeneXpert

Only in the description or credits: Crash Course Lectures · Discord · John's Washington Post essay on tuberculosis tests · TBFighters

Also centred on Danaher Corporation: Barely Contained Rage: An Open Letter to Danaher and Cepheid · Talking Tuberculosis, GeneXpert, J&J, and more with MY HEROES · So, um.... GOOD NEWS?!?!?! · End of a Rough Year · Is It 2010? IT'S A PARTS VIDEO · I Don't Want them to Get Away With It…

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