[modeless]

Governments create pharmaceutical monopolies by granting parents that make competition illegal. They do this explicitly so that companies can raise prices, to incentivize and fund drug development (which other government regulations make more expensive). Companies are using the system as designed and intended by the government.

Nobody would develop drugs under today's ridiculously expensive process without some kind of very large incentive, so those life saving drugs wouldn't exist without those high prices. But obviously the system is terrible. Costs could be lower to reduce the need for the price gouging incentive, and there are other incentive structures that could be used instead of granting monopolies that wouldn't have as many terrible side effects. (Price gouging is far from the only issue with patents.)

[amrocha]

I see what you mean, but it’s not that simple. Sure, the government of a country issues a patent, but that patent is enforced by the WTO, not by the individual country.

Sure, an individual country can decide to break that patent, but if they do that they’re punished by the WTO. And large pharmaceutical companies have a large influence on the WTO through lobbying, and the revolving door from public and private executive positions in rich countries in Europe and the US.

So it’s not like these companies aren’t culpable either.

One more thing, you say that no one would develop drugs without some kind of very large incentive.

The incentive to governments is making sure their citizens don’t die. Even ignoring the ethical side of it, you can’t tax a dead person, so it’s in the governments best interest to develop drugs, and charge as little as possible for them for its own citizens.

[modeless]

The WTO is a creation of governments and ultimately under their control. If the US wanted to change how medical patents work it could absolutely do so. These are government failings and blaming them mostly or exclusively on private companies is ridiculous.

[amrocha]

Well yeah, but not all governments are equal. Sure, if the USA wanted to it could do whatever it wanted to, but that’s not the case for any other country in the world.

And the same people that wrote those legislation are also the ones running big pharma.