“What is the alternative way of getting these drug prices closer to world prices instead of exorbitant captive market rates?”
Let other countries bid in the US market. If a German company makes the same pill as an American company and it is cheaper, why can’t I buy my pill from them? It’s all about competition.
They would have to get by the FDA first. The competition is only US based and sometimes protected by patents. The whole US market is protected from outside competition.
I could buy the very same diclofenac sodium aka voltaren outside the US for about 10 bucks a tube or even less. It is just topical ibuprofen. In the US it is more than 50 to 80 bucks. Same gel, made in Germany. But it is against the law to mail order it from outside the US where it is a simple over the counter topical anti-inflammatory gel. The pricing is predatory.
I used to buy cipro and just about anything else other than narcotics over the counter from the druggist in Brazil. Same stuff sold here from the same manufacturer but at a fraction of the price.
Because you are not just paying for the pill. You are also paying for the R& D that invented and tested the drug as well as the manufacturing. If the former isn’t paid there wont be any new drugs. Do you expect drug companies to invest a billion dollars formulating and testing a new drug then give the recipe away for free?