It takes a lot of money to bring any product of any kind to market, even if it is simple and not novel. What you mean to say is you only see 2 options, artificial scarcity / monopoly (aka patents) or planned economy.

But these are not the only 2 options. With patents, the argument is, the only way to make sure a manufacturer is able to recoup their development cost is to grant monopoly, that the only way to provide incentive for further development of new drugs is the reward of false scarcity. This is simply not true.

Let’s imagine a world where all invention and scientific discovery is always public domain, Pro Bono Populi. If there is no profit motive to find that one drug that everyone needs and continuously sell more of it, there is now a profit motive to continuously find new drugs that someone needs. This actually encourages development of drugs and therapies that are niche, it also encourages cures over lifetime therapies. Competition is moved to the good of humanity rather than the good of one person’s purse.

It really is that simple.