[bityard]

That is true in a lot of areas. Unfortunately, that's not how the pharma industry works. If a medication is patented, the company who owns it sets the price (or licensing price) according to demand. As an example, there was a scandal or two in the past few years where private equity firms were buying pharma companies and jacking up the price of medications to the point where the users of those medications got to choose between bankruptcy and living.

(Disclaimer 1: I don't know if metformin is patented.)

(Disclaimer 2: This is not an anti-capitlaist rant. Capitalism works fine with adequate governmental regulation. However, practically nothing about the US healthcare system is adequately regulated.)

[shiroiushi]

Metformin was invented in the 1920s, and achieved widespread usage in the 1950s. It's far beyond any patent terms.