janelane wrote:
Seems asinine to develop a pill for which fully 10% of the target consumers cannot afford. And then, in recognition of this fact, to make a complicated pricing system by which some people have to pay the full price and others nothing at all. I'd be interested to see the specifics of what determines who pays. I agree with the graduated pricing structure for drugs, but in the end it only serves to reinforce the overarching top-level problem that drugs are too expensive to begin with.

Drugs really are fantastically expensive (~$1B) to develop and test. Companies must be incented to make this investment. For better or worse, our government is in the business of redistributing wealth and as such, it makes a certain degree of sense that in situations like this where what you're really paying for is an intangible, i.e. patent license, the rich are made to subsidize the poor.

RE: Maker of Heart Drug Intended for Blacks Bases Price on Patients' Wealth