> Inflating or price-fixing medicine that is ESSENTIAL to human life is not moral. It causes people to die because they can't afford it.
"Inflating" the price of something beyond the cost of production is how you make a profit. Pharma companies are not charities and there's no reason to expect them to not try to make a profit. The morality of charging money for health services is subjective.
Now "price-fixing" is a different ballpark altogether. That's specifically illegal and rightly so in a capitalistic system as competition is what we're counting on to reduce prices. If they created a cartel to inflate the prices of generics then the companies should be punitively fined and the responsible executives who should be prosecuted.
> Pharma companies are not charities and there's no reason to expect them to not try to make a profit.
It is nothing wrong to make a profit. It is a right thing to make a profit. But to make a profit by amoral means is wrong.
> The morality of charging money for health services is subjective.
It doesn't mean that we shouldn't take it into a consideration. Law enforcement might have trouble to deal with a subjective assessments, but we are not the law.
At the same time, I think we can agree on the amorality of the discussed practices, so it is not so subjective as it may seem. Moreover I believe that pharma might agree with us, if it stops for a second to think about morality, not just about profits.
"Inflating" the price of something beyond the cost of production is how you make a profit. Pharma companies are not charities and there's no reason to expect them to not try to make a profit. The morality of charging money for health services is subjective.
Now "price-fixing" is a different ballpark altogether. That's specifically illegal and rightly so in a capitalistic system as competition is what we're counting on to reduce prices. If they created a cartel to inflate the prices of generics then the companies should be punitively fined and the responsible executives who should be prosecuted.