Assembled below are various posts and articles I, and a few others, have made on the topic of drug reimportation and the controversy about whether drug reimportation from countries with price caps should be reimported into the US even though this would undercut the higher patent-caused monopoly price charged here. This started with some allegedly free market scholars associated with Cato coming out against drug reimportation, and, thus, against free trade, since they also support patents, namely Doug Bandow, Michael Kraus, and Richard Epstein:
- Protectionist Cato? (July 24, 2003)
- Epstein and Patents (July 25, 2003)
- Edward H. Crane & Roger Pilon, Conservative Drug Split (July 29, 2003)
- Cato Tugs Stray Back Onto the Reservation (July 29, 2003)
- Cato Tugs Stray Back Onto the Reservation; Epstein on reimportation (July 29, 2003)
- Re: Cato on Drug Reimportation (July 30, 2003)
- Jude Blanchette, The Reimportation Controversy (July 31, 2003)
- Patents, Prescription Drugs, and Price Controls (Jan. 5, 2004)
- Palmer on Patents (Oct. 27, 2005)
- Re: Bandow, Cato, and Drug “Reimportation” (Dec. 18, 2005)
- Re: Bandow and reimportation, by Norman Singleton (Dec. 19, 2005)
- Richard Epstein on “The Structural Unity of Real and Intellectual Property” (Oct. 4, 2006)
- Intellectual Property and Think Tank Corruption (Oct. 17, 2006)
- Pilon on Patents (Sept. 28, 2007)
More recently: See the Wall Street Journal editorial also opposing free trade for the sake of upholding US patent monopoly prices: “When Biden, Trump and DeSantis Agree on Something, Watch Out” (Jan. 10, 2024): “The real point of the Biden-Trump-DeSantis mind-meld is to import foreign drug price controls that Congress won’t pass. This will erode U.S. intellectual property protection that rewards innovation and investment.”
And now we have former/alleged libertarian David Henderson in the War Street Journal writing this embarrassing, cringe doozy: “Be Thankful for High Drug Prices,” by David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper (Feb. 4, 2024). Subtitle: “If Americans weren’t overcharged, we wouldn’t have innovative treatments”. The article is full-throated in defense of our insane patent system and the monopoly prices it supports. Embarrassing and ridiculous, especially as he used to pretend to be against IP (Jeff Tucker winning economist David Henderson over to the anti-IP side).
