HARE-BRAINED "PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER" WANTS TO DESTROY THE DRUG INDUSTRY

We read:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards wants to reduce the cost of U.S. health care by removing patents for breakthrough drugs and requiring health insurance companies to spend at least 85 percent of their premiums on patient care.The former North Carolina senator was expected to discuss details of a universal health care proposal he released in February during an appearance Thursday at the Riverside Health Center. Edwards’ plan would remove long-term patents for companies that develop breakthrough drugs and then reap large profits because of the monopolies those patents provide, according to a statement by Edwards obtained Wednesday evening. Edwards said offering cash incentives instead would allow multiple companies to produce those drugs and drive down prices.

More here

So where are the companies going to get the half-a billion dollars it costs to get a new drug approved? And where are they going to get the millions that lawyers regularly squezze out of them when a new drug is found to have side-effects (as all drugs do)? I guess the government will become the chief drug innovator! Heaven help us if that happens! The U.S. government can't even keep equipment up to its soldiers in Iraq and that is a task way simpler than deciding on the healing prospects of a molecule. How many of the drugs we use today were discovered and developed in Soviet Russia?

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