Why drugs cost so much, 101: Medicine monopolies

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We’re always asking: Why do drugs cost so freaking much? And it’s a complicated question. There are a bunch of reasons — to be sure . But in our reporting over the years, like our stories on insulin and tuberculosis drugs , experts cited one big reason over and over again: The pharmaceutical industry wages sophisticated legal battles to keep monopoly control over their best selling, most lucrative drugs — blocking generic competition, and increasing their prices along the way. How did it come to be this way? In this first episode of a new series – what we’re calling An Arm and a Leg 101 – we’re doing a crash course in the history of the drug…