&gt;  In extreme cases like this where a profit motive is the only thing keeping us from curing huge numbers of people, the US government should write a single check, take the rights, and start handing out pills.<p>Yeah, but, as your own link notes, courts (and the constitution) require fair market value for compensation.  This doesn&#x27;t save you any money at all; eminent domain can only have an impact when someone is refusing to sell at the market price.  But Gilead is <i>very very happy</i> to sell at the market price.  The issue is people upset at what that market price <i>is</i>.<p>If the US government could come up with the fair market value of the exclusive rights to manufacture Harvoni and Sovaldi, the problem wouldn&#x27;t exist, because the same amount of money could also just buy all the doses of Harvoni and Sovaldi on the open market.<p>&gt; As far as the company is concerned, that could even be a preferable outcome. Cash now and the marketing benefits to promote its other drugs.<p>Oh sure, they&#x27;d love for the US government to buy a million doses at $84k <i>each</i> and start handing them out.  I don&#x27;t think that solves any problems though.<p>Edit:  Wait, or is your comment actually just an argument for single payer healthcare, and I&#x27;m just being obtuse?  If so, my apologies for missing the joke, and I think you&#x27;re right:  The most obvious role for the government is funding universal catastrophic care, and I think this should be a part of that.