How do get drugs to Africa Mike Rappaport

David Friedman has an interesting proposal:

How to make medical drugs forconditions such as AIDS available in poor countries?  On the face of it,there should be an easy solution. Sellers want to make money; youcannot make money trying to sell someone something at a price he cannotafford to pay. One would expect drug companies to be happy to chargelower prices in poorer countries, as long as they get enough to morethan cover the actual production cost of the drug.

The problemis resale. How can the drug company be sure that the drugs it sells ata cheap price in Zambia don’t get resold in France or the U.S.,reducing the quantity it can sell in those countries at a high price?

I have another solution. Letcharitable donors in rich countries buy out the patent on the secondbest AIDS drug or combination of drugs and public domain it let anyonewho wants make it. Buying the second best drug should not be thatexpensive, since it probably is not making much money any more. Andeven if the same company owns the first best drug, it should not losetoo many sales, since most customers who can afford the best drug willkeep taking it.