Drugs are cheaper in foreign countries because they can’t be sued. I heard a pharmacy guru on radio say 90% of the cost of drugs in the US is for legal reasons.
And it’s nearly impossible for your drug to not be ‘proven’ to have ‘side effects’ at some point in time. Heaven help the pharmacorp being sued for side effects caused by people being on their stuff for far longer than they could test-run for them, because the lawyers will have no regard for how bad the economy sucks for you at the present.
Look at the Tv ads for “join a class action suit if you were hurt by baby powder!”. Complete and utter bilge but not only is there a good chance the suit wins, literally any other drug is now vulnerable because what is milder than talcum powder?
Bingo! Almost all products in the US factor in the cost of future litigation. Tort reform would help this issue. But how are we going to get real tort reform when the people writing the laws are lawyers?