Why does that matter if the research and development costs were publicly funded?
If the government paid for all of that (including opportunity costs + a decent margin), then the government should have asked for the patent rights (or at least a commitment on pricing).
Has any serious journalist looked into exactly what the world governments paid for and exactly what the deals with the drug companies look like?
All I can find are biased opinion pieces devoid of actual information.
Incidentally, if you want serious journalism, the FT is worth paying for.
The laws need to change.
(i) e.g. privatization of telephone networks
(ii) e.g. toll roads and bridges
The 'public' wanted that by voting in the lawmakers making that possible.
That's how democracy works.
Also we're not talking about physical things, but something 'intellectual' like software, so the comparison is inaccurate.
More accurate would be IT research done in a publicly funded university.
Depending on where you live, you could very well be under the impression that the roads belong to delivery companies, taxis, etc. (private companies that make money off them) as they are effectively useless to everyone else (= the public) while they are constantly blocking them.
In this case the building is publicly funded for a profit AND the final result donated in “perpetuity” to make it a private TOLL road.
Double dip?
(I’m ok with subsidizing the research, and even negotiating a bulk manufacturing contract with an agreed margin... but a patent? Isn’t that bending too far?)
Socialized risk and privatized profits. A capitalist's dream.
To go back to your highway analogy, its as if the government contracted for the entire interstate highway system to be built and then let various private companies charge a perpetual toll to use the roads in addition to the money they made for building it.
Its not an accounting trick, its a perpetual royalty on the taxpayer's expense if the drug works (and a profit even if their drug never passes Phase 3 clinical trials).
Noam Chomsky has quite a bone to pick about toll roads