I am sure that most of you know that the price of U.S. prescription drugs are ve

Question

I am sure that most of you know that the price of U.S. prescription drugs are very- high-highest in the world. Pharmaceutical drugs are protected by U.S. government issued patents-which eliminates free market competition for a number of years and allowing the patent holder not to be concerned by price competition in the market. The patent holder has a monopoly for their product-service. Please read the articles that have been inserted below and discuss the patent monopoly of prescription drugs in your own words.

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-0404.html

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/09/23/should-the-government-impose-drug-price-controls

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2015/10/29/how-government-policy-promotes-high-drug-prices/

Explanation / Answer

First 2 articles are discussed below.

The first article justifies the stance of patents provided by the government to certain companies for their remarkable invention by stating how the government only aims to reward the inventor for his invention and not monopolize the industry.

This is because the patent does not only allow the inventor to produce or sell the exclusive good, but it also gives complete right to the inventor to license out his invention to be sold or used for production purposes by another producer or manufacturer by taking a royalty fee from them. However, it does not give the inventor the right to extract money from other producers. It is something done voluntarily by both the parties and none of them are forced into it.

The second article states how the ever increasing prices of drugs are a serious problem for the economy. The article states that it should not be the norm that the government should solely rely on private companies for new inventions and then give them patents and let them operate the drug prices on their own. Instead, the government should shift the focus from private to public healthcare by not only putting a cap on the prices of important drugs but also investing heavily in public healthcare and incentivize public health officials and scientists to develop ne drigs and inventions.

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