Re: @skelband @AC
Just remind us all about how much of a drug's development costs are actually down to marketing. The last I heard (from Sir Robert Winston, I think) was that marketing accounts for between a quarter and a third of the "development" costs. Has that changed? Can it really be counted as part of the costs that "need" to be recovered from price-gouging (just yesterday I was looking up a company called Gilead Sciences over there in the Land of the Free(TM), who have been accused of charging $1000 per tablet for one of their medications)?
Pure socialism (whatever that means) may not work, but charging through the nose doesn't either - it is simply eugenics by economic theory. To complain that everyone is money-driven is a) a lie, and b) proved not to work. Therefore, a hybrid model should be adopted.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
