What would penicillin cost under value-based pricing, a system in which drug makers set prices based on the benefits of their products to consumers and the larger society, rather than drugs’ costs of production? Penicillin has saved millions of lives since its first use in 1942, and it still works for many patients despite growing bacterial resistance to the drug. (Fortunately, many fewer patients get infections with pneumococcus now because we have a good vaccine for it.) Surely, under value-based pricing, penicillin would sell for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars a dose.
HENRY KOTULA 