> R&D, IP licensing, and (perhaps most significantly) regulatory compliance
I'm going to call the R&D costs a wash because that cost should also be factored into the price of the diabetic injector that forms the basis of the $30 homebrew design.
From your list, that leaves IP licensing and regulatory compliance which are both imposed by the state.
I believe we would still see plenty of (and actually probably more) innovation with a much more relaxed IP policy that favored small, incremental improvements and the diversity of product variations that competition would bring. In short, copyright terms should be 5-10 years max and should only be granted in cases where there's proof of significant research. Simply, if the ability to monopolize your 'idea' for the better part of a decade doesn't incentivize you sufficiently--it's likewise not worth depriving the public over it.
With regards to regulatory compliance, I believe we're seeing a case of the perfect becoming the enemy of the good. Imagine if the state extended the good-Samaritan policy to all medical providers--legally protecting anyone who exercises good-faith and due-diligence towards improving the health of their fellow man. Also, replace the old-west era FDA with information-age search engines, customer reviews and a plethora of private Consumer Reports -type organizations. In this scenario, there are several auto-injectors available on the market ranging from a $30 model which has failure rate of 50% to a $600 model that's been tested out the wazoo and only fails 1% of the time. Even under this very pessimistic scenario (50% seems pretty conservative to me), many lives are saved because there's a long tail of people who can't afford the $600 model but more than half of them end up surviving an episode of anaphylaxis because they can access the low and mid -range models.
I agree with everything above (except the R&D costs thing). The only issue is that Mylan is operating in the current regulatory environment, not the one you described. So at least part of the outrage about the cost should be directed at the regulatory framework we're working in, as well as the distribution channels and methods.
I think this is what Mylan's CEO was attempting to convey on Bloomberg, although with questionable success.
I'm going to call the R&D costs a wash because that cost should also be factored into the price of the diabetic injector that forms the basis of the $30 homebrew design.
From your list, that leaves IP licensing and regulatory compliance which are both imposed by the state.
I believe we would still see plenty of (and actually probably more) innovation with a much more relaxed IP policy that favored small, incremental improvements and the diversity of product variations that competition would bring. In short, copyright terms should be 5-10 years max and should only be granted in cases where there's proof of significant research. Simply, if the ability to monopolize your 'idea' for the better part of a decade doesn't incentivize you sufficiently--it's likewise not worth depriving the public over it.
With regards to regulatory compliance, I believe we're seeing a case of the perfect becoming the enemy of the good. Imagine if the state extended the good-Samaritan policy to all medical providers--legally protecting anyone who exercises good-faith and due-diligence towards improving the health of their fellow man. Also, replace the old-west era FDA with information-age search engines, customer reviews and a plethora of private Consumer Reports -type organizations. In this scenario, there are several auto-injectors available on the market ranging from a $30 model which has failure rate of 50% to a $600 model that's been tested out the wazoo and only fails 1% of the time. Even under this very pessimistic scenario (50% seems pretty conservative to me), many lives are saved because there's a long tail of people who can't afford the $600 model but more than half of them end up surviving an episode of anaphylaxis because they can access the low and mid -range models.