Source: Beat The Press
by Dean Baker
“Years ago, Ronald Reagan ran around saying that we don’t need government to fix the problem, government is the problem. In the case of the high cost of drugs and vaccines and other pharmaceutical products, Reagan is exactly on the mark. The problems that people face in getting the drugs they need at affordable prices is almost entirely due to government-granted patent monopolies and related protections. The point, which I know I make endlessly, is that drugs are almost always cheap to manufacture and distribute. In a free market it would be rare that a drug would sell for more than $30 a prescription and often for considerably less. We would not have problems paying for our drugs and vaccines if they sold at free market prices. And there would be no such thing as PBMs in a free market. Do we have ‘grocery benefit managers?'” (10/23/24)
https://cepr.net/patent-monopolies-and-pbms-protectionism-leads-to-corruption-47368/