Berine Sanders advocates a free market in AIDS drugs

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http://www.nationofchange.org/bernie-sanders-advocates-free-market-aids-drugs-1336458710

Drugs are cheap. Patent monopolies are expensive. These are simple facts that everyone should know but for some reason few do.

The point here is simple; the vast majority of drugs are cheap to produce. Chain drug stores sell hundreds of generic drugs for $5-$7 per prescription. They can do this profitably because few drugs require expensive chemicals or manufacturing processes.

However, many brand drugs sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars per prescription. This is due to the fact that drug companies have patent monopolies on these drugs. The government will arrest anyone who produces these drugs without the permission of the patent holder. Since drugs can be essential for people’s health and/or life, if they can find a way to pay any price demanded by the drug companies, they will.

The higher prices due to patent monopolies are the reason that many people have difficulty paying for drugs. If all drugs were sold in a free market as generics, paying for drugs would not be a serious issue except for the very poor.

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1. This won't work

because new drugs won't be developed without the profit motive.

But what I think is ridiculous is that drugs developed with help from the public sector (grant money, etc.) get no public sector return. It is a straight subsidy. With grants should come partial public ownership of the drugs developed from the public money research. I have never understood the logic of not including that clause in public grant money.