> The company is not trying to sell it, or allowing a local company to make it. Vertex is blocking potential generic competitors by seeking patents in numerous countries.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/health/cystic-fibrosis-dr...
https://www.news24.com/you/news/local/this-johannesburg-woma...
Not to mention the price of $322 000 a year.
Insurance is billed that rate, and they do not owe that much ultimately either.
not like communist countries are well known for groundbreaking new medicine...
I don't know what the solution is as it's a complex issue... but seeing someone young (in their 30s) die from something preventable because they can't afford the drug is perhaps one of the most horrifying and dystopian things I've seen in my life and makes me worried for our future. One presumably where the rich can live 50 years longer than the "poors".
The best argument you can make is that private pharma competes to improve manufacturing processes, but you world also have that in a 100% public system from multiple countries competing/collaborating with each other.
The problem you probably mean can be avoided by giving the license to selected companirs only, and gating access to the drug through healthcare providers.