There are solutions to funding drug research that don't require artificial scarcity. Eg prizes, or simply more government R&D. The status quo is rediculously i

There are solutions to funding drug research that don't require artificial scarcity. Eg prizes, or simply more government R&D. The status quo is rediculously inefficient: "...patent-protected brand drugs sell for more than three times the price of generic drugs that sell in a free market. This means that the country could save approximately $140 billion a year on its $220 billion annual bill for prescription drugs if the government did not provide patent protection and drugs were instead sold in a competitive market. According to the pharmaceutical industry, it spent $41.1 billion on research in the United States in 2004.4 This means that the country spends more than three dollars in higher drug prices for every dollar of drug research supported through the patent system. The rest of the additional spending went to marketing, high CEO pay, and drug company profits." (Quoted from: http://deanbaker.net/images/stories/documents/cns.html#5 http://deanbaker.net/images/stories/documents/cns.html#5)