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Arnold Kling has a Ph.D. in economics from MIT; founded homefair.com, one of the very first commercial websites, in 1994; separated from Homefair in January 2000 after it was sold to Homestore; is author of Under the Radar: Starting Your Internet Business without Venture Capital, and is an essayist. Send comments to us at econ@corante.com

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« Patents in Practice | Main | Welcome Brother Weinberger! »

January 28, 2004

Lessig on Drug Patents

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Posted by Arnold

He writes,


Politicians know that most voters understand squat about how monopolies work best. They also know that there won't be a rally on Capitol Hill in favor of price discrimination. It is therefore cheap to scold big pharma for the "windfall profits" made by charging so much more for drugs in the US than in other countries. Cheap, and criminal. This behavior by politicians simply denies medicine to those who need it most.

If politicians don't like the logic of price discrimination, then let them fund pharmaceutical research in a different way. Abolish drug patents, and grant rewards for great inventions, or give huge subsidies to universities and companies to develop new medicines.


I find myself pretty much in agreement with the entire article (I read the whole thing through twice, just to make sure). I wonder if that means that Larry's usual friends are going to crucify him for it.

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