The Drug Market Scam: Why You Pay Way Too Much for Bad Medicine (And Bernie Sanders' Solution)

By Dean Baker, AlterNet
Posted on June 2, 2011, Printed on June 3, 2011

Drugs are cheap. There are few drugs that would sell for more than $5-$10 a prescription in a free market. However, many drugs in the United States sell for hundreds of dollars per prescription and sometimes several thousand dollars per prescription. There is a simple reason for this fact: government-granted patent monopolies.

The government gives patent monopolies to provide an incentive for drug companies to carry through research. This is an incredibly backward and inefficient way to pay for research. It leaves us paying huge amounts of money for cheap drugs. It also often leads to bad medicine.