Comments for Protectionism Leads to Corruption # 27,453: The Case of Drug Patents, Again at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 7 out of 7 comments http://www.cepr.net Tue, 21 May 2013 11:41:18 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/protectionism-leads-to-corruption-27453-the-case-of-drug-patents-again#comment-2179 [b]Tom[/b] wrote, [quote]Patents in other markets do not typically raise prices by a factor of 100.[/quote] False. If we extent "patents" to "patents and copyrights," then the price of Microsoft products are far greater than their marginal cost, which is merely the cost of storing and transmitting the bits. Well more than 100X. - liberal Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:58:32 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/protectionism-leads-to-corruption-27453-the-case-of-drug-patents-again#comment-2178 [quote]Economists like it when goods sell for their marginal cost.[/quote] Ask yourself, Dean---what's the marginal cost of a parcel of land? - liberal Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:56:23 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/protectionism-leads-to-corruption-27453-the-case-of-drug-patents-again#comment-2177 yo Tom- one special thing about the drug market is that we are all naturally marketed to need it- think about it- if some aweful condition were to befall you, you will naturally desire to pay almost anything to fix it (if the problem is worrisome enough)- drug pushers exploit this vulnerability by gouging the victim- this is one of the reasons why AIDS patients tactically had to lobby the government to intervene in the price market, so that the drugs were accessible to more citizens - frankenduf Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:20:53 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/protectionism-leads-to-corruption-27453-the-case-of-drug-patents-again#comment-2169 You get a root canal and your dentist writes you a prescription for 15 codeine and aspirin which cost around six bucks at your pharmacy. Just 50 miles away, across the border, 250 codeine and aspirin purchased over the counter at a Canadian pharmacy, requiring only your signature, without a prescription, costs six bucks. - diesel Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:28:49 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/protectionism-leads-to-corruption-27453-the-case-of-drug-patents-again#comment-2157 But how likely is it that this investigation's conclusions will draw the connection between protectionism and corruption? Payoffs to foreign doctors are among a larger set of problems caused by protectionism as it is currently in effect. Yet it doesn't appear as though these policies are going anywhere fast, and Big Pharma certainly isn't about to let this particular lesson from ECON 101 to become too glaringly obvious. - Ruchi Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:36:05 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/protectionism-leads-to-corruption-27453-the-case-of-drug-patents-again#comment-2151 Dean Far worse than bribing MDs to prescribe their drug brands - an old, old story - is the other leg of the DoJ inquiry. Namely that pharma companies may have paid foreign MD investigators on new drug trials to fudge results. The apparent omission of deaths in an Avandia trial has given rise to this concern. Big Pharma is planning to shift trials to China. It's not just the cost saving - it's the opportunity to get the results you want. We need a protective (and protectionist) law requiring new drug trials to be run in the US and a few ethically trustworthy nations to be considered by the FDA in deciding whether to allow a new drug on to the market. We are already letting Big Pharma save a few cents per pill and destroy a few thousand US jobs by importing most active pharmaceutical ingredients from China. That's insane, given Chinese lack of quality control and business ethics, combined with the difficulty of testing for product purity and safety when the paper trail is potentially corrupted. But even more insane would be approving new drugs on the basis of fiction-prone 3rd world trials. - caustic Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:22:48 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/protectionism-leads-to-corruption-27453-the-case-of-drug-patents-again#comment-2149 Patents in other markets do not typically raise prices by a factor of 100. What else about the drug market explains this? Regulatory approval? - Tom Sat, 14 Aug 2010 03:14:08 +0100