Walter Block
The market doesn’t allow us to treat every disease, but is that really a valid criticism of economic freedom?
What is an orphan drug? It is one that will address a disease that negatively impacts only a few people. Why is the orphan drug perennially in the news? This is because it can be and is used to constitute a very serious complaint about free enterprise; it is one of the best sticks with which to beat up on laissez-faire capitalism. To wit, profit-seeking entrepreneurs have little or no incentive to engage in research and development to satisfy desperate potential customers. There are too few of them. The profits are simply not there. They lie elsewhere, in the direction of maladies suffered by millions of people, such as cancer, stroke, heart disease, kidney failure, etc. Solve those, or significantly reduce their severity, and you can write your own ticket. Save the lives of just a few patients? There’s no gold in them thar hills.
Is this a valid criticism of economic freedom? Does it constitute a legitimate critique of the free marketplace? In a word: No.
For one thing, new drugs or ameliorations are sometimes discovered accidentally. This was the case for penicillin, which has saved innumerable lives. Such a phenomenon is no respecter of numbers of patients to be made better, or profits to be earned. It functions more like a …