Its late stage capitalism at its finest. Profiting off mass suffering is to be applauded and rewarded, not considered immoral and illegal. We would rather let each other die of treatable conditions than have slightly lower profit.
To be able to provide public funding, you also need to have public money. So it still seems valid to compare productivity of countries (in terms of cures invented).
That is one? _That_ is one? Have you heard of cancer?
That is _everything_!
So what did we achieve with our superior capitalistic systems when it comes
to fighting one of the worst threats to our species?
Look, I ain't a communist, but I ain't in favor of capitalism either. What I know is that cheerleading will get us nowhere. We need to critically think about our course as a human species and if you think we're on a proper trajectory, think again.
There has been a lot of progress in fighting cancer. Survival rates for many types of cancer have increased tremendously. I assume this medication from Cuba is just one of many specific approaches.
Regulation has nothing to do with capitalism. Capitalists (as in people believing in the free market) are actually opposed to what you're describing. What this non-profit did would happen immediately if there was no government to shut it down because there are high margins and so it's very desirable to enter the market with a lower price - and also charity.
If there was no government to shut down the nonprofit, the company wouldn’t have spent billions to develop the cure in the first place. Why would you do that, if anyone could just copy your work and profit for themselves?
You're very naive if you think that's worth it even in the slightest. See army budgets - and remember that no one will fight for you for your ideas, since you have none. And people (read: other armies) will oppose you.
I cannot imagine charity ponying up $11 billion on anything at all, much less the development of a single drug. Of course, a lot of this cost is due to excessive FDA requirements, but the charities are not funding drug development right now, and I imagine there is better use of charity money, for things that aren’t worth for companies to get into.
You're thinking about a whole different world with mentality from this one. Right now the system works like it does - drugs get developed - and so there is no need for charity to do it. Charity is not just taking money and redirecting it, it's also operating a business - yes, you actually can run a business without taking massive margins and being greedy, that's what government tries to do (but fails because of involuntarity and lack of competition).
Don't forget that the charities don't have the 11 billion now because the money goes elsewhere (to pharma corps), but people might give it to the charity if the corps didnt't exist.
The same development could possibly cost less, that's another thing to consider.
Overall my point is that the greed of pharma companies is not because of capitalism because it wouldn't be possible in pure capitalism. It's enabled by the government.
