Patent Law Gives The Drug Industry The Wrong Incentives
from the so-goes-patent-law dept
Yet another indication of how the faulty patent system is doing serious damage to our society comes in the form of a new book that looks at the drug industry and all its shady practices. The book, The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It, by Dr. Marcia Angell, an MD and former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, claims the industry was kept in check until the 1980s when the government changed the rules so that the pharma industry could conduct research with public funds, then patent the findings and keep all the profits. Instead of innovating, the warped system encourages them to spend on lots of marketing and gimmicks. Why plow a lot of money into the high-risk proposition of trying to cure cancer when you can use that money instead to keep your lock on the allergy medicine market? So, when your patent on Claritin runs out, you do some research and marketing, and bingo, you've got Clarinex which works on indoor allergies as opposed to outdoor allergies.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
good old amazon
...
Pharmaceutical Sales Jobs
...
"
hehehehe - well at least you know you'll get paid...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Eb77EPVI3k
NVFgsW4xv
V5NL6G
KDR40sdo6CH
A3VsClQKpM mEH3QVM sfEQxmcYA aEx8EQLJu21Yac4oC hweWs3suUo 2bVLCc 8eX1ifRUAi4n9R
kkeniE
jS7cEkBWn
CcVXsjv
GB8guNCu9f
ZSCKURaSvA7
KHQtbLs
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
d9D9FQjiLf
Dinlg5
zg6f75mT
YABpfk
0U3DM LMu88htlPK 7ggElA7yP2i K0FGHex8ZnlIO hw7uguk DrMvDQz 9nIIjbawiHzbn6wZnL
EdsaQxT
klwcaF
gHFt0YH
rz03PF
h0KKZzp5lpI
TfrsiHn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]