Vexing, isn't it.
"Think that patents are the reason sick people die because these little pieces of paper artificially inflate drug prices outside reasonable levels. Annoyingly retarded."
The problem with that, not that I entirely disagree, is that it costs a metric shitload of money to develop a new pharmaceutical. Despite what many people seem to think, and in some cases what the pharmaceutical companies themselves say, they aren't in it to save the world, but to make money like any other company.
So, in order to recoup all that investment, they patent their product and sell rights to it under licence until they get their money back and see a profit.
If they couldn't do that, then they wouldn't spend the money to develop the drug in the first place, and people would still die because no one would be inventing the drugs that they need to save them.
Now I won't say that Pharma's don't abuse this system, because I've seen them do it from up close, but simply abolishing patents doesn't solve the problem because removing revenue protection also removes the incentive to do R&D.
It's a bugger, especially if you're poor, but there you are. There are probably solutions to this conundrum, but I'm buggered if I know what they are.
Paris, just to lighten the mood a bit, really.