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CoastalCoder

I really don't understand the repeated drama about drug prices.

IIUC, the dynamics are the same as with most other businesses:

- Seller sets prices to maximize profits. If possible, on a per-market-segment / per-customer basis.

- There are no laws (AFAIK) enforcing price caps, aside from what Medicare will pay.

- Seller has a temporary monopoly on some drugs via the government -controlled patent system.

- Seller is a for-profit corporation.

So what do lawmakers expect???

They made the rules, and are uniquely empowered to change them if they don't like the resulting market dynamics.

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> Seller has a temporary monopoly on some drugs via the government -controlled patent system.

That's the problem, it gives them a government enforced monopoly with no responsibility or obligation.

Patents should expire after a certain amount of profit is made from them, or come with some level of responsibility to use them for the public good.

They expire after 20 years IIRC. There is some shenanigans that go on with "evergreening" where they try to expand it out for longer, but it's generally an effective system.

A lot of people can die in 20 years.

>Patents should expire after a certain amount of profit is made from them, or come with some level of responsibility to use them for the public good.

Not only patents, that should also apply to copyright and the like. If the goal is really to push insensitive for innovation, creating uncapped profit will mechanically lead to undesirable situation (as per the stated goal) where an oligarchy will relentlessly take the lion’s share and let next to nothing for the rest of their late competitors.

That "certain amount of profit" might be a lot higher than you think.

Developing new drugs is a multi-billion dollar gamble. Between FDA approvals and research that doesn't go anywhere, drug making is a really losing game unless you make a metric ton of money.

They expect to get votes by creating theater that seems to show they care and blames others for problems.

Obviously they can pass laws to do things but it’s more politically expedient to just talk about how they want to do things.

It’s one thing if you make yet another acne medicine to the market and let the market bear what it will but when you have something that can possibly save lives and improve general health for 40% of the US population that are obese then it might come time to do a little governmental intervention and give the middle finger to the market, pay off the company a handsome sum, and take over the medication.

I mean almost half of them want to change the rules, any kind of universal healthcare would massively change how drug prices are negotiated. You'll have to blame the other politicians here that do not want to change the system here.

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