Is the currently produced insulin by &#x27;big pharma&#x27; as you term them, significantly different from the original formulation?<p>If it is, then it cannot be termed abuse of the patent system.<p>If it is not, then our current situation can be termed a side-effect of a broken patent system.<p>Yet all that is orthogonal to the above poster. Even if pharmaceutical companies were only using the original formulation, they would still be entitled to make a profit under any capitalist mode of thought.<p>Simply because something is required for life is no barrier to morally or economically, for allowing someone to profit from it.<p>Granted, anything that is required for life will be tightly regulated by the government. For instance, I&#x27;d think its impossible for farmers to collude to withhold their produce and simply starve a country.