We the People # 7

29"x23", Mixed Media on paper, 2010-2020

"US lawmakers have succumbed to the absurd argument that direct price negotiations by the government is akin to price controls and have prohibited Medicare from directly negotiating prices.Under current law, ownership of the patents on drugs discovered with taxpayer money is given away to the academic institutions that discover them. They license those patents to the pharmaceutical industry in exchange for the payment of a royalty which the public actually pays since the royalty increases the price charged for a drug. Federal law essentially socializes the cost of drug discovery while privatizing the profits since it does nothing to limit the prices that can be charged or the profits that can be earned from drugs discovered at public expense.For decades, Congress has simply been transferring wealth from ordinary citizens to the pharmaceutical industry. While claiming to believe in free market capitalism, it has created a web of monopolies which cause the United States to pay the world's highest prices for drugs even though it is the largest purchaser."

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Alfred Engelberg, intellectual property lawyer