[tracker1]

But stronger patent protection won't improve pricing... competition will. I think we should reduce extension patents to 5 years, and possibly even have compulsory licensing fees ($10 per day, per prescription for the first year, $8 for the second ... 6... 4... down to $2, then $1) for prescription drug patents starting at 5 years. And the penalty for an insufficient patent application for a third party to properly apply within the first 8 years would mean a loss of said patent.

[refurb]

What about drugs that cost more than $10 per day to produce? Hell that's only $3650 per year. How many manufacturing plans can sustain themselves on that sort of revenue, particularly if they are creating a drug for a disease that only affects 1000 patients in the world?

One of the reasons why generic drugs prices jumped so much in the last few years, if because manufacturers said "screw this" and just stopped making the drugs because the margins were so low.

[tracker1]

The $10/day was for the licensing to the patent holder, not a cap on the cost of the drug to the consumer. This is about reducing patent protections on drugs to 5 years after market, and compulsory license caps after that, in order to encourage competition, not a price cap over production costs in a free market.

Without competition, you get inflated pricing.