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Save the Whales! Abolish Patents!
,----[ Quote ]
| But, perhaps, without all those extra monopoly profits we
| wouldn't have such great new products? The fact is there aren't
| so many great new products - a well known fact among health
| economists is that while big pharma's spending has soared the
| last decade, as patent control has tightened, drug discovery has
| plummeted. Pharmaceutical innovation is not lower in Europe,
| despite of big pharma's lower monopoly profits. While the market
| for pharmaceuticals is now largely a global one, so local rules
| may not be so important, this was less true in the past.
| Historically, before pharmaceutical patents were introduced in
| Italy in 1978, that country accounted for about 8% of new
| pharmaceutical discoveries worldwide. After the industry was
| strangled by patents, that percentage dropped to practically
| zero. Switzerland, a powerhouse in the world drug industry,
| introduced pharmaceutical patents at about the same time. While
| Switzerland's fall has not been as dramatic as Italy's, it too is
| much less of a powerhouse today than it was before 1977.
|
| Patents do not seem to lead to the innovation their proponents
| claim. The list of examples goes on and on: the discovery of the
| one-dose HIV cocktail that replaced the complicated multi-pill
| regime? That took place in India a country that at that time did
| not allow pharmaceutical patents. Of the fifteen great medical
| milestones recently identified by the British Medical Journal -
| only two were patented or could be attributed to the "incentive"
| that patents supposedly provide. Numerous technical studies by
| economists of the effect of stronger patents on innovation have
| failed to find any consistent increase. Put it plainly: while the
| social gains from abolishing patents on drugs are obvious and
| computable, the losses are dubious and, on the basis of empirical
| evidence, probably nil.
|
| Pharmaceutical patents and the resulting monopolies have many
| other corrosive effects, over and above raising the prices of
| prescription drugs. Pharmaceutical companies spend far more money
| promoting their products than on R&D. Some of the giants spend as
| much as four times on marketing as they do on research and
| development. How do these companies market their products? Most
| of the money goes to "scientifically convincing" the medical
| profession to prescribe patented products. How? Well, for
| example, by inviting doctors and their families to week-long
| conferences in exclusive resorts, where two hours are for a
| marketing presentation (the "medical symposium") and the rest for
| (all-included) leisure. A spectacular - but hardly unique -
| example of the level of corruption is the conviction of Pfizer
| for encouraging doctors to bill the government for drugs they
| were provided for free. These practices not only raise the cost
| of drugs, but corrode trust in the medical profession.
`----
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-k-levine/save-the-whales-abolish-p_b_286929.html
Want Healthcare Reform That Works? Get Rid Of Patents
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090916/0406396211.shtml
Recent:
India Prepares EU Trade Complaint
,----[ Quote ]
| India plans to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization alleging
| that the European Union allowed big pharmaceutical companies to use the
| bloc's tough patent laws to have national customs agencies detain generic
| drugs in transit to developing countries, according to India's commerce
| secretary.
`----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124949598103308449.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Big Pharma Abusing Patent Laws To Seize And Destroy Legal Indian Generic Drugs
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090807/0312375803.shtml
A Fine Kettle of Pfizer Fish
,----[ Quote ]
| Here's a fine kettle of fish. Pfizer's lawyers hired a detective who ended up
| intimidating a witness the day before he was due to testify...
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090809231252693
Harnessing the Crowd to Make Better Drugs: Merckâs Friend Nails Down $5M to
Propel New Open Source Era
,----[ Quote ]
| Sage is built on the premise that vast networks of genes get perturbed, or
| thrown off-kilter, in complex diseases like cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
| Scientists canât just pick one faulty gene or protein and make a magic bullet
| to shut it down. But what if researchers around the world capturing genomic
| profiles on patients could get all of their data to talk to each other
| through a free, open database? A researcher in Seattle looking at how all
| 35,000 genes in breast cancer patients are dialed on or off at a certain
| stage of illness might be able to make critical comparisons by stacking
| results up against a deeper and broader data pool that integrates clinical,
| genetic, and other molecular data from peers in, say, San Francisco, New
| Haven, CT, or anywhere else.
`----
http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/03/02/harnessing-the-crowd-to-make-better-drugs-mercks-stephen-friend-nails-down-5m-to-propel-biology-into-open-source-era/
http://tinyurl.com/bcbjhs
Academic Astroturfing for Medical Profits
,----[ Quote ]
| JAMA has a rather scathing editorial condemning what is apparently the
| practice of ghostwriting and appending known specialists names as lead
| authors in studies that are then used to promote pharmaceuticals and medical
| devices.
`----
http://technocrat.net/d/2008/4/16/39686
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