EpiPen's price has ballooned about 400% since 2008, rising from about a $100 list price to $500 today. The EpiPen is one of the most important life-saving medical innovations for people with severe food allergies—which affect as many as 15 million Americans and 1 in 13 children in the United States. But its price has exploded over the last decade despite few upgrades to the product itself. The product's lack of competitors is likely a significant driver of the costs. [...] [The] EpiPen enjoys a near-monopoly on the market with annual sales of more than $1.3 billion and nearly 90% U.S. market share.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @01:31PM
first mover advantage. reputation, quality control.
there are many ways to make it profitable.
or at the very least compromise to limit patent to only 1 year monopoly.
patents are out of control and are the largest money suck in our healthcare system.
Capitalism and free markets are good,
monopolies/bailouts and cronyism supported but liberals and statists are evil.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday August 23 2016, @03:09PM
I think a 5 year monopoly is generally justifiable. 10 years if there is a large amount of required initial investment...but you should need to really prove the requirement. And patents should be unenforceable against individuals whose income is less than half of yours...without allowing either party exemptions. Perhaps also companies should not be able to enforce patents against other companies whose income was less than half of theirs, but I'm less certain.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @04:09PM
That would not be enough to even cover the costs of a Phase I clinical trial. It would maybe be enough for the pre-clinical work.