Question

Do we need to limit patent monopolies on drugs to lower prescription drug costs? Why?

Answer 1

Excessive drug prices are the largest single class of over-expenditure on health care in the United States compared to Europe, far beyond high administrative costs and disproportionate use of CT and MRI scans. And unlike virtually any other commodity, over time, drug prices continue to rise rapidly. HHS predicts that pharmaceutical prices will rise by 6.3% annually over the next decade, while other healthcare costs will rise by 5.5%. Basic economic principles suggest that the price of drugs should go down, not up: production rates are rising for most drugs, and little new research is being carried out on those already on the market.

Patent-protected medicines are often important to the health or even life of individuals. It makes little sense to allow a drug company to have a monopoly where it can charge anything that can compel the consumer to pay, or more generally the insurer or state. This is like negotiating the firefighters ' pay at the point of showing up with your family inside at your burning house. This would give us much worse fire service and many firefighters who are very wealthy.

A monopoly that enables drug companies to sell their drugs at prices that can be hundreds of times higher than the free market price has all the economic problems predicted when governments interfere with the market. Drug companies systematically mislead physicians and the public to increase sales about the safety and efficacy of their products. The cost of poor health outcomes and preventable deaths amounts to tens of billions of dollars each year.

To support research, we don't need patent monopolies. We are already spending more than $30 billion a year to fund research through the National Health Institutes. Everybody acknowledges that this money is very successful, including the drug companies. We could double or triple that expenditure and replace the drug companies ' patent-supported research. Some medications would be sold at the same price as a bottle of generic aspirin with the research costs paid up front.