You're not subsidizing us.
That's the wrong way to look at it.
Your companies are just skinning you alive, because you're letting them.
That's the wrong way to look at it.
Your companies are just skinning you alive, because you're letting them.
So MANY of these discussions are pointless when we've had huge changes in the past and 5 years later people can barely remember the past discussions.
Fear of change is huge, the impact of the average change is in general quite small, in the medium to long term.
Unfortunately, this requires the intellectual honesty for people to admit that profits do in fact Drive Innovation which seems to be a sticking point for most.
The rate of innovation would slip for global drug development without the promise of high prices and blockbuster profits in the US market.
I have worked for a couple different Pharma companies, including those HQ'ed in Europe, and this is basically the situation. EU based Pharma companies make most of their profit in the US (almost every pharma company does).
There are other ways to incentivize drug development and/or defray the financial risk of development, of course... but this is situation today... has been for a long time.
Govt then auctions rights to productize drugs. Industry pays govt a royalty. Modulate the royalty to incentivize desired outcomes. eg zero (or negative) royalty for malaria, 3000% for esteem remedies like viagra.
Further, when there is no market demand for obvious public health priorities, govt contracts with industry, paying for mfg, distribution, marketing, training, whatever.