The pricing of pharmaceutical drugs sits at the intersection of innovation, profit, and human need. Companies argue that high prices are necessary to fund the enormous cost of research and development — bringing a new drug to market can cost over a billion dollars. Critics argue that this justification is often overstated: much foundational research is publicly funded, and the actual cost of manufacturing drugs is frequently a fraction of their price. The most acute ethical problem is access: in many countries, patients cannot afford medicines that could save their lives. The tension between intellectual property rights, which incentivise innovation, and the treatment of medicines as public goods, which maximises access, is one of the defining policy debates in global health.

💡 Did you know? Insulin, which is essential for survival for millions of diabetics, was discovered in 1921. The inventors sold the patent to the University of Toronto for $1, intending it to be available to all. Today, insulin prices in the US are among the highest in the world.