Socialist claim on drug companies

[primemover]

I have recently come across a claim by a fellow at work that I was unprepared to answer. He said that drug companies intentionally keep life saving medications and cures off of the market in order to sell drugs to treat the symptoms so they can make more of a profit. I asked him if he had any proof of this and he just responded that it was common knowledge or some crap like that. I told him that it sounds a lot like the "we never landed on the moon" conspiracy theory.

[Scott_Connery]

That sort of thinking would be necesity mean that a giant conspiracy exists amongst all medical firms. I hear this type of argument made frequently about all manner of products.

Tire makers make tires that wear out artificially soon.

Light bulbs that go bad intentionally.

There was a rumor from the 60's or maybe earlier, that one of the big three had invented a 100 mpg carburator (sp?), but didn't want it brought to market because people wouldn't buy enough gas.....

I've even heard someone apply it to tennis balls.

The answer of course is that for such a conspiracy to happen, all the involved players would have to intentionally forgo profits they could earn. If just one firm would bring the life saving drug/machine to market, while all the others only addressed the symptoms, they would absolutely rake in the cash faster than they could count.

If just one firm produced tires that performed identically to the competitions, but lasted 10 times as long, they would gain almost 100% market share, and thus crazy amounts of money.

Obviously, it is impossible for everyone to willfully make less money than they have the potential too, especially if the company is currently having financial difficulties.