Doctors can import prescriptions drugs from other countries if they wish too, with a special import form to justify the exception.
(See our other backwards drug laws for more confirmation of this)
edit @aikah: ok, point taken. You recall the issues Apple and Samsung had with the one phone looking like the other? Fighting on the streets and in court to prove that the edges were different or the home button is not the same? Patents are valid for phones, then why not for medicine? Because lives are involved? That seems a slippery argument - next animal life is endangered or quality of living is impacted: where does it stop?
It's not possible to start making exceptions, because there is always someone with a tear-jerking story who is impacted by not being excepted too...
That's not a good analogy. one could make an phone that has the exact same specs as the iphone or jeans that is the exact replica of a Levi's ,without the brand and the logo on it and it would not be an iPHone or a Levi's Jean.
it might not be legal but it wouldn't be shocking. The fact that you can't reproduce a formula ... TO SAVE LIVES ... is shocking.
US government prefers people dying because they can't afford meds rather than violating something that has nothing to do with the free market, ie , patents. We're not talking about phones or clothes here , we're talking about medication people's life depend on.
I'm not sure this is true. You'd likely fall afoul of one of Apple's design patents (like the famous "rounded corners" patent).