The US pharma system was designed so that the public pays for the research, and the profits go to rich owners. It was set up this way by a scheme advised by right-wing economists and carried out by business lobbyists.

More recently, private equity companies have taken over many pharma companies and drive the gouging.

Pharma is one of the areas where patents do special harm.

It is unfortunate that the article occasionally says "IP" when it means patents. This encourages the confusion that the bogus overgeneralization "intellectual property" embodies.

The article suggests using compulsory licenses to knock down these patents when they endanger the public. I'm entirely in favor of that, but I think we need to cure the disease, not just treat the symptoms. The cure I recommend is to take the testing of drugs out of the hands of drug manufacturers, thus eliminating their argument for artificial monopolies, and turn them into generic manufacturers.