title: Priceless goods: how should life-saving drugs be priced?
abstract: This article examines the ethical issues raised by the pricing of priceless goods. Priceless goods are defined as ones that are widely held to have some special non-market value that makes them unsuited for buying and selling. One subset of priceless goods is prescription drugs--particularly life-saving and life-enhancing ones. Drug makers are under pressure to price their medicines responsibly, which means to restrain their prices (and profits). However, this article argues that it is precisely because life-saving and life-enhancing medicines are priceless that it is especially urgent to leave companies free to charge market prices for them.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Maitland
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising / Q000191:economics; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000191:economics; D032821:Commodification; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics* / Q000941:ethics*; D018954:Drugs, Essential / Q000191:economics*; D040861:Ethics, Business; D005610:Freedom; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D028681:Moral Obligations; D010330:Patents as Topic; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014481:United States; D015215:Zidovudine / Q000191:economics
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D018954:Drugs, Essential; D015215:Zidovudine