[red-iron-pine]

> Once a company in the US has figured out a treatment for eclampsia, Europe can steal this knowledge for free (i.e. price-control them according to cost) while the US company must price-gouge against the manufacturing cost to recoup the R&D costs. This factors heavily into how much healthcare costs in the US (not to be interpreted as 'it's the only reason')

Recouping R&D costs has been disproven time and again. Medical companies spend far more on average on marketing (and lobbying) than on actual R&D.

[lxm]

In theory then a bunch of pharma startups that have nailed their marketing costs should then flood the market with cheap new stuff. Why haven't they?

[peteradio]

What incentive is there to do that? Is there anything preventing them from being gobbled up by current giants?

[lxm]

Being gobbled up at a premium is a reasonable exit strategy.

[peteradio]

Well yea, but OP wondered where are these cheap drugs.