The justification adopted by pharmaceutical companies is that research, experimentation and those to obtain the necessary authorizations are very expensive: often over 700 million euros for each drug.
The high price serves to recover these expenses before the patent or exclusive marketing rights expire: all pharmaceutical companies are accountable to shareholders and thus charge whatever price the market can support.
The actual cost of manufacturing is relatively low, so once patents expire, competition between manufacturers drives down the price of drugs.
2014-03-01 – Science World Focus Questions and Answers
