Couldn't a pragmatic approach be a market with mix of private and publicly owned companies healthcare/pharma/research companies? Private companies can continue maximize wealth, but now competing with publicly owned companies which have "empathy for the customer". That might lower the prices in the market.
I’ve thought about this. I think one model would be to have successful treatments be “bought out” for public use through an appropriately priced awards process. So the pharmaceutical company would know with certainty that their costs and even profit targets would be satisfied upon success. Have the award process promise 2x their costs, or their costs plus a $somePercent premium above cost. Maybe one option comes with some public grant process along the way. Upon completion the underlying medication gets either publicly produced if market participants don’t satisfy demand and otherwise allowed to be produced by anyone.
I think something like that the government side is more akin to good accounting practices than heavy handed regulatory oversight.
