<i>What we have learned over the last 25 years is the traditional laissez faire model has failed us when it comes to antibiotics.</i><p>I disagree.<p>Think of it this way.  If it were truly laissez faire, then drug makers would charge a price high enough to still make it worthwhile.  Unfortunately, the way antibiotics are paid for in US hospitals, the hospitals would lose money each time they used the drug.<p>Hell, we pay ~$80K to cure hepatitis C (millions have it in the US).  If you have an antibiotic that cures a highly resistant infection that happens maybe a few hundred times in the US, why not charge something similar?  What is the benefit to society to save someone&#x27;s life?