This interesting article on Prospect explores the possibility of state-sanctioned seizure of private intellectual property rights for the purpose of lowering pharmeceutical costs:

Unless the drug industry starts to negotiate significantly lower prices, it may find itself battling debt-strapped states for control over the manufacture of drugs. States already take land and other property in order to benefit the public by building things such as roads and schools. Now some legislators and officials are saying they should be able to take away a drug company’s intellectual property, its patent. They want to give these patents, which allow a company to manufacture a product, to competitors that agree to sell the drugs to the states at much lower prices.

Source: Barbara Dreyfuss, Prospect Online