[noble]

The problem is that the govt is providing an artificial barrier to entry by other companies which protects the profits of the big pharma. Because of it the pharma companies have no incentive to reduce prices . They would rather spend the money on lobbying

[crusso]

Very true, so it's ironic that so many posters in this thread are advocating knee-jerk solutions that hand even more of the pharmaceutical industry over to the government.

Our government is fundamentally broken and the source of a good portion of the problems in the health care industry... so let's sprinkle some more government in there!

Seriously, the government has plenty that it can do by providing more transparency in the industry, streamlining and correcting problems in the Patent office and at the FDA, stopping collusion and price fixing, and examining the length of patent-granting-monopolies to ensure that profiteering isn't too far out of whack.