I’m afraid you haven’t got it. What Santorum meant was the drug companies should increase the drug prices in order to make more profit in order to ... blah-blah.
That’s NOT free market. Free market means to put different companies in concurrence on the same products, which will LOWER the prices NOT increase them. Giving to some specific companies the control of the market is the reason of soaring costs of the healthcare. It’s the government and FDA fault.
What a crock. The drug companies invest hundreds of millions of dollars to bring new therapies to market. Depending on the size of the potential market, they have to charge accordingly to recoup their investment and make a profit. That's how the markets work -- or is how they are supposed to work. Most NME's require at least a dozen years to finally become commercialized. That doesn't leave a lot of time to make back their investment before the patent(s) expire.
Anyone calling for controls over what the drug companies can charge, or what they can earn, is uniquely unqualified to be lecturing anyone about markets. Countries that impose price controls on drugs do not create new drugs. There's a good reason for this. Anyone arguing in favor of government forcing industry to share their intellectual property, for the good of society -- or whatever other BS you can come up with, is an economic illiterate and a collectivist.
Healthcare is expensive because we have a third-party pays system, and because providing the best healthcare in the world is expensive.
Are you AT ALL familiar with Article 1 Section 8 clause 8 of our Constitution?
Do you think it works as designed to promote the useful arts and sciences?
Do you understand why the vast majority of scientific innovation comes from America?
Are you opposed to the intellectual property rights recognized under our Constitution?