&gt; Notably, patents of life-sustaining medicines utterly destroy that cornerstone of capitalism. People can and will pay almost anything to get that drug, so the seller can charge what it wants - that&#x27;s not capitalism as it&#x27;s supposed to work, that&#x27;s a hostage scenario.<p>I don&#x27;t think it is appropriate to compare a drug company that created a life-saving drug to a hostage taker.  And in this scenario it is particularly inappropriate, because they are charging less for the drug than the previous best treatments cost!<p>Furthermore, there is an alternative here.  The patent only covers this one cure.  You are welcome to go out and spend $2-3 billion to try to create your own drug.  (But that would be pretty risky, wouldn&#x27;t it?  And good luck raising the money if you plan on giving the drug away.)