1) An article discussing the prices of drugs that doesn't talk about the costs of RnD and the FDA approval process is pointless.
2) We're in a free market, companies can charge a billion dollars a pill if they want to.
2) We're in a free market, companies can charge a billion dollars a pill if they want to.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-drug-prices-remain-high-gene...
Companies wouldn't be able to "charge a billion dollars" or even increase the existing prices by 5,000% overnight, as it happened for several different drugs last year, if the generics and drug importation markets were much more "free".
As far as safety goes, the interests of pharma and the FDA coincide. You really don't want to find out that your compounds causes adverse effects once it has hit the market, it's a guaranteed win for the lawyers. People in the field will remember the Vioxx lawsuits. They were expensive to defend and a PR disaster as well, because it became known that Merck had a list of people it wanted silenced.
And if the FDA won't confirm efficacy for you you can be sure that your health insurance will be asking for proof before they pay. The only reason that Gilead can charge as much for their Hep C drug is that it is still cheaper than a liver transplant, and it is proven to work!
But, even more, your argument as presented is self defeating. If the companies already have to do enough research into the drug to make it safe (because 'You really don't want to find out that your compounds causes adverse effects once it has hit the market, it's a guaranteed win for the lawyers'), and that it works ('your health insurance will be asking for proof before they pay'), then why do we need another organisation that requires a different set of tests?
From my perspective, it seems like a substance that's already through the R&D pipeline would be relatively cheap to turn into something for sale, compared to developing new drugs "from scratch".
Selank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selank
Afobazole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabomotizole
Emoxypine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoxypine
Picamilon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picamilon
There's an entire category of anti-anxiety drugs developed in Russia that are not licensed in the US, because it's not worth the price for anyone.
Also: melatonin. Your doctor CAN NOT PRESCRIBE MELATONIN. https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/09/28/sleep-now-by-prescript...
And you can't prescribe fish oil, but at least there's LOVAZA™®©.
For some hair-raisers, try Chemjobber's "Warning Letter of the Week" category: http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/search/label/warning%20letter...
I don't want to find out what things would look like without adult supervision.
You also need to prove equivalence for your preparation, bioavailability depends on the filler composition in your pill.