Demagoguing high pharmaceutical prices by our president and lefties of all stripes obscures the fact that foreigners are given a free ride on American R & D. Exercising gangsterism in a manner to make Scarface blush, foreign governments threaten the production of cheap knock-offs if our companies don’t cave on prices.
It’s easy for them to do: buy a pill and take it apart in the lab. Don’t worry, the theft is protected by these governments. Trump, yes, bash China for their unfair trade practices, but also let’s put some muscle behind a campaign to end this extortion racket.
Joining the economic-kiss-of-death crowd led by Bernie Sanders, et al, is hardly an adult response to high prices. It typically takes 12 years and $2.4 billion to bring a new medicine to market. Industrialized methods brings down production costs, but what about recouping the $2.4 billion? If not countered, Trump and lefties, alongside the international extortion racket, will become coffin-makers for an entire American industry. Now, what about all those tweets about “Jobs!, Jobs!, Jobs!”?
Appeals to economic illiteracy and popular venality should be rejected in favor of a little common sense.
** Thanks to Steve Forbes, “Great Medicine for Trade”, Forbes, March 31, 2018, p. 15.
RogerG