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, @04:16PM
To be fair, the Salk vaccine was just inactivated virus. Could you patent the virus or the formalin-inactivation of the virus?
I'm all for universal healthcare, but patents are useful for drugs with high development costs while we have a for-profit system.