{"by":"wooby","id":24213781,"parent":24212027,"text":"It is my understanding that malnutrition, clean water, and access to education/information are foremost among the problems of the developing world, and it's not at all clear to me that regulating medication in those countries would improve anyone's situation measurably.<p>For my part, here in the "developed" world, I have a family member with a rare autoimmune condition, and access to comparatively few medications. Those that are available are very expensive and not covered by any insurance. There is little competition between their manufacturers.<p>Because it costs at least 1.4B to bring a drug to market, and because of the rarity of her illness, it's unlikely any company will pursue new research. Thanks to the FDA's inordinately expensive approval process, no company is incentivized to bring a drug to market with an upside of <= 1.4B, regardless of how many people it could help.","time":1597860494,"type":"comment"}