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Re:Good News You May Have Missed in 2014 by mercutio2 on Tuesday December 16, 2014 @10:22PM (#8760914)
If the choices offered to pharmaceutical companies are x prizes or the current patent regime, then sure, you need multi-billion dollar prizes. I'm not convinced patents are a good thing to continue to offer, in which case the option of the 30-50 billion dollar payday won't be available.

That would likely mean fewer baldness treatments, which I'm fine with. What's unclear is whether we'd get a more socially optimal investment level for DALY improvements. I tend to think we would.

Re:Good News You May Have Missed in 2014 by refurb on Tuesday December 16, 2014 @11:07PM (#8761032)
The example I gave was a cure for hepatitis C, not a baldness treatment.

What you're suggesting is limiting the upside for investment. How do you think investors (the ones giving money to develop a drug) would react if you told them that the best they can do is a 2x return on their money when before they could get a 5-15x return?