[felipeko]

As far as I am concerned, the problem is not with people who make drugs and want to profit from it, but with people who regulate competition away.

If people weren't prohibited from buying whatever the drug they want at their own risk, they wouldn't be forced to monopoly prices.

[rtkwe]

Utter nonsense. That kind of deregulation fixes everything always assumes a perfect market with perfect information, ie consumers who can actually judge the quality of the product their receiving. Drugs most definitely do not fit into this category, how do I tell if the drug I'm taking is actually working? Would I feel worse or be getting sicker faster if I weren't taking Pepsi Insulin (tm) or is it just a placebo and I'm just going through the disease normally (or tricking my self into feeling better because I'm taking something). Ok, this drug does make me feel better but it turns out it makes mutant babies if I happen to get pregnant while taking it (see Thalidomide or the warnings on basically any acne medication).

[felipeko]

I make "no perfect market" or "perfect information" assumption.

I am pretty confident that people will take stupid risks, as I am confident that people who want to be safe - buying from reputable sources - will be able to.

[rtkwe]

How do people without a scientific background and without the access to clinical testing data (since we're deregulating here companies won't even have to do them before going to market legally) have a hope of evaluating what new drugs are safe and which companies are reliable?

[mrguyorama]

If you want an example of how an unregulated medicine market works, check out the American medical "supplement" market. Plenty of producers, dubious and often purposely wrong claims, often don't even contain the compound as advertised, and still hilariously expensive.

If unregulation begets competition and that begets lower prices, why do these turmeric supplements cost $30[0] while you can go to the spice aisle and get 10x as much for $5?

[0]:https://www.amazon.com/Turmeric-Curcumin-Capsules-MONEY-GUAR...

[JamesBarney]

While this is true of some drugs this isn't true of insulin. Insulin that doesn't work would be noticed very quickly.

[rtkwe]

It would be hard to notice if it were adulterated with something else with long term harmful effects though. Say something that increases the potency or allows the effect to last longer (so I'm not strawmanning a The Jungle style willfully negligent corp) but is ultimately harmful over long term or combination with other medicines?

[JamesBarney]

Yeah, and those risks are why we have so much regulation which is why we have such high costs. It's a tough problem.

[kevin_b_er]

Yes, this type of libertarian thinking presumes good information. Medicine and chemical production rarely have good information. It is too expensive. So the people as a collective must investigate these costs. This is why the government regulation exists. Even then it took a long time to fight against the greed of the tobacco companies as they fight tooth and nail to continue poisoning the populace and keep people ignorant about it.