Why are pharma drugs so expensive? (Redux redux)

As a follow up to this post, find the following Nation Master statistic, "Patents granted (per capita) by country:"

#1 Luxembourg: 431.098 per million people per 1
(...)
#9 New Zealand: 25.5266 per million people per 1
(...)
#38 UK: 1.35669 per million people per 1
#39 Spain: 1.04112 per million people per 1
#40 United States: 0.97723 per million people per 1
#41 Canada: 0.944978 per million people per 1
#42 Uzbekistan: 0.931064 per million people per 1
(...)
#56 Iran: 0.014702 per million people per 1
#57 Brazil: 0.0107462 per million people per 1
#58 Mexico: 0.00941593 per million people per 1
#59 India: 0.0009257 per million people per 1
#60 China: 0.000765513 per million people per 1

I'm not altogether sure what to make of these numbers. At least my first post on the subject is validated somewhat.

Post postscript: it occurs to me that very large populations (China, India, Brazil) might grant fewer patents per capita than smaller populations (Luxembourg, New Zealand) simply on mathematical grounds. There is no ideology to the statement that number n divided by a larger divisor ld will result in a smaller ratio sr. It is clear that there needs to be some balance between protecting intellectual property and maintaining perpetual monopolies. I'll let the policy wonks figure out what precisely that balance is.