change the patents system to make life-saving drugs affordable for the poor

Too many people are unable to afford medications for killer diseases such as aids, leprosy and malaria. The drugs are not particularly expensive to manufacture, but patent royalties make the price artificially high. Currently patent royalties are used to fund research and development. This means that the drugs which the most research goes into are those which make the most money, so that more money is being spent on research for ineffective and side-effect laden antidepressants etc. than for the drugs which save the most lives. New innovations should be available to people who would benefit from them, not just to the relatively wealthy. The system of patent royalties should be scrapped, and instead the research and development should be funded by subsidies. This would bring major benefits to the world, and the funds required would be only a small fraction of the money currently being wasted on manufacturing weapons.