4 ms·
Well, I'd be okay with eliminating all drug patents in exchange for NOT using government monopsony purchasing power. Are you game? After all, if we want an ef
by jellicle 7y ago
Well, I'd be okay with eliminating all drug patents in exchange for NOT using government monopsony purchasing power. Are you game? After all, if we want an efficient level, drug patents are the enemy. And hey, if we look around the world at countries that are lax at enforcing drug patents, we see their drug prices are massively lower than the US's. So it seems like there might be a pretty big market distortion here, in the upwards direction, caused by drug patents.
- rayiner 7y agoYou can get rid of patents, but you need something else to prevent free-riding, or else that will undermine the efficient price level. Patents and unfair competition law aren't just things we made up for funsies--they address a real economic problem that undermines efficient markets. (And if you look at countries that don't enforce drug patents, they have cheap drugs, but produce almost zero medical innovation.)