New antibiotics are always needed BigstockA rare case for government interventionGovernment must pay companies not to sell things - that look like an odd contention, especially coming from one as resolutely free market as myself. One example is pharmaceuticals - it costs $1billion to gain the necessary license to sell a new drug. They are now going to pay the developers of new antibiotics not to sell them - or to sell them in the tiny and limited quantities - only in the first decades and more of their lives, paying them not to sell something they’ve developed. But to do this, we’ve got to pay them not to sell it in those early years. So, strange as it may seem, there really is a case for the government to pay companies to not sell something they’ve already developed.

Source: Dhaka Tribune January 26, 2019 19:30 UTC