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>It's a common misconception that prices are even remotely related to costs.

They're not related to production costs; they're related to the cost of researching drugs in the future. That is, prices determine what pharma companies will be able to do later on.

Not saying I agree with that, but that's how it is.

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According to the IFPMA, on average, a sixth of all sales in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry revenue is spent on R&D. To put things in perspective, according to WHO, this is roughly half of what they spend on marketing.

http://www.ifpma.org/fileadmin/content/Publication/2011/2011... http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story073/en/

But, in the end, still market-bearable costs. Maybe we'd see a reduction of the costs of doing research if there weren't so much tax-payer and insurance money involved today.

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