Not sure if this is sarcasm but lots of ways, for one you have 21 years to have a field day with the drug before patent expires, for another if its a rare drug you can apply for Orphan drug status where they extend the patent for rare drugs. Im not sure where the balance lies but like most things in life its probably somewhere in the middle. U.S. drug companies produce the vast amount of innovation, and U.S. consumers pay for it while everyone else in the world pays the reduced rate, but without U.S. drug companies most of these drugs wouldnt exist.