Thread by @swardley

X : What can be done about drug price fixing?
Me : Do you mean companies deliberately inflating prices in a captured market?
X : Yes.
Me : One method would be for Government to have the right to annul the entire patent porfolio of any company found to be causing social harm.

X : Isn't that a bit drastic?
Me : If you're endangering life through profiteering then you've pretty much broken any social contract.
X : Won't that stop companies researching?
Me : Most core research is done in Universities. Company "research" usually means product development.

Me : What you need to understand is the market is a tool, a means of achieving certain goals but it is not a goal or purpose in itself. When market failures occur (and such profteering is one example) then the Gov must react with force and tempo.

X : That seems a draconian response to what are commercial pressures.
Me : I've sat in a boardroom listening to execs try and work out how much to charge for a future epigenetic based one shot cure for a chronic illness. The price had nothing to do with cost but lost revenue ...

... i.e. keeping someone in a condition of chronic illness is worth a lot of money in drug sales. I think you might be suffering from a delusion that the pharmaceutal industry is about curing people rather than pushing drug revenue.