2 ms·
Yes and no, industry also has it's fair share of monopolies that gatekeep themselves. If a company becomes big and powerful enough it can write tailored legisla
by carlmr 9y ago
Yes and no, industry also has it's fair share of monopolies that gatekeep themselves. If a company becomes big and powerful enough it can write tailored legislation and corrupt the right people so that other competitors have no chance.
In this case I'd say you're probably right because the EpiPen is a very simple product, so you'd find a lot of potential competitors, even some with good enough funding to contend with the current market players. However with more complicated medical devices it's harder and harder to compete, because you need so much upfront research money, that you in fact always get a anti-competitive monopoly or oligopoly.
- curiousgeorgio 9y ago> you need so much upfront research money, that you in fact always get a anti-competitive monopoly or oligopoly Industries with high R&D costs may be more prone to the formation of natural monopolies, but in most cases that's a better scenario than the coercive monopolies created as a byproduct of government regulation. It could be argued that the tech industry, as one example, has similarly high R&D costs (at least in certain fields), and Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. have all been blamed for monopolistic practices, but even then, the tech world operates in a much healthier market environment than the healthcare or pharmaceutical industries. Personally, I'd feel more confident being treated in a theoretical Apple hospital (heck, I'd even go for the cheaper Android version) than any of our real-world hospitals with shiny government seals of approval (and more inefficiencies than one can imagine) - as long as I can rely on a decent level of transparency in safety/quality/pricing of those options.