Big Pharma Losing an Excuse?

Seniors and others in the U.S. have called for legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs in America (with much cheaper versions of the same products available to the North and South) for years, but Big Pharmaceutical companies always argued that the higher prices paid for researching new drugs. Those arguments were always suspect, as the industry moved from curatives to palliatives in the 70s -- recognizing they could make a lot more treating symptoms than curing conditions -- and as advertising budgets increased astronomically. Those shifts also substantially increased the number of people on prescription drugs for non-congenital conditions -- like depression (major or minor), general anxiety disorder, ED, restless leg syndrome and the like. Now even the claim of researching new drugs will be called into question, as budgets for R&D are being slashed across the globe: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE65F25Q20100616. I think we should help out these poor companies by coming up with some new excuses for paying such exhorbinant prices. Any ideas? Maybe it will hurt the sale of first class airline tickets, or summer homes, or undermine the big karat diamond market? Or maybe we should consider if we really want to shift from being the "prozac nation" to "generic nation"?