Big Pharma has a long history of price-gouging American patients through tactics designed to game the U.S. patent system and block competition from more affordable alternatives — enabling Big Pharma to maintain monopolies over their biggest money-makers. The pharmaceutical industry’s egregious abuse of the patent system is a root cause of high prescription drug prices because it enables Big Pharma to repeatedly hike prices on existing drugs and set out-of-control launch prices on new medications (knowing they can maintain monopolies longer on blockbuster products).