Crazy idea: all pharmaceutical research should be publicly funded and publicly-owned. No private ownership of drug patents, period.
"But this will disincentive research!" Maybe. Or, tax people more in order to fund the research. The tax revenue would go directly to researcher salary, equipment, expenses. Even a large tax increase can't be worse than today, where people have to pay huge $$$ anyway, of which a large cut goes to executives, shareholders, the marketing machine, etc.
I believe by and large, people that go into pharma research do it because they're interested in the science and the cause, not because of any privatized profit motivation. Which is to say, people will still go to grad school in the same fields and continue carrying on the research work (so long as the facilities and equipment is available, which we can solve). The downside is that many senior executives would be displaced or be forced to accept lower compensation.
Someday in the distant future, people will look back and be as shocked that private companies profited from medicine, as we're shocked today about the for-profit firefighters in ancient Rome.
"But this will disincentive research!" Maybe. Or, tax people more in order to fund the research. The tax revenue would go directly to researcher salary, equipment, expenses. Even a large tax increase can't be worse than today, where people have to pay huge $$$ anyway, of which a large cut goes to executives, shareholders, the marketing machine, etc.
I believe by and large, people that go into pharma research do it because they're interested in the science and the cause, not because of any privatized profit motivation. Which is to say, people will still go to grad school in the same fields and continue carrying on the research work (so long as the facilities and equipment is available, which we can solve). The downside is that many senior executives would be displaced or be forced to accept lower compensation.
Someday in the distant future, people will look back and be as shocked that private companies profited from medicine, as we're shocked today about the for-profit firefighters in ancient Rome.