Comment by klyrs
3 years ago
> Should the government have not helped fund this drug because now it's expensive?
No, the government should set a reasonable price for the product they funded. A high enough price to fund manufacturing, a low enough price to ensure that people who need the treatment have ready access to it. If the upper bound on price is too low for universal access, that's what subsidies are for.
Instead, we have free money to bootstrap extractive capitalists, at cost and detriment to people who need care.
> No, the government should set a reasonable price for the product they funded.
Do the investors at the company you work at set the prices for the products you produce? That would be strange.
> Instead, we have free money to bootstrap extractive capitalists, at cost and detriment to people who need care.
It's "free" money because the capital costs are high and it's risky. I don't think it's the only or the best way but it is a valid way, but it doesn't remove the right to make a profit.
As to it being "detriment[al]" to the people who need care, they're getting a drug that didn't exist before, right? And this also should (generally) make existing drugs cheaper, right?