The pharmavillain straw man

Over at The New Republic, the normally astute Stanley Kaufman ends his piece on The Constant Gardener with this bit of silliness:

Note: film critics have received an e-mail message from a group representing the
pharmaceutical industry, asking us--before we review The Constant Gardener--to
consider the reality of that industry's activities in Africa and elsewhere.
Obediently, I have considered the facts in the message and also have considered
le Carré's statement about his book: "As my journey through the pharmaceutical
jungle progressed, I came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my
story was as tame as a holiday postcard." I note, too, the e-mail's point that
"from 1998 to 2003, the pharmaceutical industry donated $4.1 billion ... to
improve global health." The email says nothing about the prices of drugs that
made those billions available.

Kaufman is making the bled-to-death argument that drug prices are too high because of those nasty pharmaceutical companies. And yet with the average price of bringing a new drug to market approaching the $1 billion mark, what does he expect drug companies will do – toss their products away like candy at a Christmas parade? If anything, the real problem is the overregulation of the drug trade, which artificially drives up costs and keeps life-saving drugs from those in need by prolonging the development process. Kaufman and his liberal ilk fail to realize (or simply don’t want to believe) that without the incentive of profit, the financial risks inherent in drug development would rarely if ever be incurred. The best way to reduce drug costs and save more lives is to get rid of regulatory laws that make it harder for drug companies to deliver their products.