A good start might be doing something to modify the average of almost a billion dollars that it takes to bring a drug through the FDA approval process...regardless of whether it's finally approved or not. This is above and beyond R&D costs for development. All of these approval costs are borne by the private sector.

The ridiculous approval process distorts the free market in drugs in many ways.

The billion dollar FDA approval process pretty much locks out any innovators who are NOT multinational corporations. If a small company comes up with an idea, or a university, they have no choice but to sell it to someone who can afford to get it approved and market it.

Also, the approval process takes years, during which patents are running out. When a drug is approved for sale, the company often only has a few years left to sell it exclusively and try to recoup the enormous costs. Guess what kind of a price they have to put on it.

Left out of this picture are small companies, cheap and affordable drugs that cannot be profitable after the approval costs are factored in, and alternative medicines that are illegal to sell for certain purposes even if they are not proven harmful.

The FDA is the main reason drug costs are enormous, and why large companies have a monopoly on the process. We need to think of another way.