&gt; What if western governments stop enforcing drug development intellectual rights?<p>No new drugs. Pretty simple.<p>Now you ask, is that a bad thing? well yes, yes it is. Right now, we are running out of (or have run out of) top end antibiotics.<p>Partly from over use (I&#x27;m looking at you America.) mostly from using them to get much higher yields in farm animals (yup, thats right, last line antibiotics are being used on pigs, so they can be packed in much higher densities. )<p>So what I hear you say? Well TB thats what. There is a resurgence in TB, the white death. Now, you might be content with  each lung collapsed in turn, in a vein attempt to cure it[1]. However I&#x27;m not.<p>1 in 3 people get cancer. The survival rates are not good. Loads of people are diabetic. (mainly because they eat shit and are fat(unless its type1 which is genetic))<p>Opensource model is just bollocks. I don&#x27;t want to be treated by some drug thats only had patchy test coverage. I don&#x27;t want to be beholden to some amateur who thought it&#x27;d be good to reinvent for the billions time penicillin.<p>Who is going to pay for the time? its not like you can provide charge for support is it?<p>No, the way forward is actually having a proper handle on insurance. Here in the UK, drugs are purchased nationally[2] but more importantly you only pay a nominal upfront fee. Its not more expensive, in fact its hovering around 6% of GDP compared to 18% for the US (and with much better care too)<p>[1]<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;journal.publications.chestnet.org&#x2F;pdfaccess.ashx?ResourceID=2102478&amp;PDFSource=13" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;journal.publications.chestnet.org&#x2F;pdfaccess.ashx?Reso...</a>
[2]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.evidence.nhs.uk&#x2F;formulary&#x2F;bnf&#x2F;current&#x2F;5-infections&#x2F;53-antiviral-drugs&#x2F;533-viral-hepatitis&#x2F;5332-chronic-hepatitis-c&#x2F;sofosbuvir" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.evidence.nhs.uk&#x2F;formulary&#x2F;bnf&#x2F;current&#x2F;5-infectio...</a>