So here’s how one expects a marketplace to work. You offer a product at a certain price. If it’s successful, other players enter the market, and the ensuing competition forces the price of the products to trend downward. Here’s how the prescription drug marketplace works. Someone overcharges for a prescription drug. Then others enter the marketplace and the competitors race to see who can charge an even more exorbitant price for an item now more widely available. Feeling disoriented, nauseated, anxious, itchy, dizzy, and a generally confused? Allow a pharmacist to explain: “Why are these companies raising their prices? Because they can. Patients paid $40 for their prescription one month and $400 the next. Nobody can believe this is happening.” Luckily, they’re working on a drug that will help you believe. From the LA Times: Here’s why drug prices rise even when there’s plenty of competition.