How would you define "profiteering?" By granting them the patent we have eliminated all possibility of competition, giving them the ability to charge whatever t

How would you define "profiteering?" By granting them the patent we have eliminated all possibility of competition, giving them the ability to charge whatever they want, anchored by what the desperate are willing to pay instead of the cost of production. To what extent can they use this power before people get up in arms about it? I think we need to rethink the entire system. There should be incentives for drug research and discovery, but we still need a functioning competitive market if we expect prices to stay at reasonable levels. One idea is, rather than giving the discoverer monopoly rights, require anyone else who produces the drug to pay a percentage of their production costs as a royalty. This preserves the competitive advantage of the company that discovered the drug, but anchors the consumer price to the cost of production.