How the invisible hand of the market literally saves lives

Competition and innovation are essential to a robust biotech industry

The market at work.
(Image credit: Corbis)

Remember when some hedge fund guy bought a small drug firm and then jacked up the price of its life-saving HIV drug by 5000 percent, to $750 a pill?

Wasn't that proof that market forces too often go haywire, and that, in important domains like health, they have to be severely curtailed? Hillary Clinton seemed to agree, tweeting that she would stop such abuses with a "plan."

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Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a writer and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His writing has appeared at Forbes, The Atlantic, First Things, Commentary Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, Quartz, and other places. He lives in Paris with his beloved wife and daughter.