5 ms·

Of course they are. In the United States you also can't import cheap generic from Canada. Most intellectual property law is recognized and enforced internationa

Of course they are. In the United States you also can't import cheap generic from Canada. Most intellectual property law is recognized and enforced internationally. Everyone on this board has a career because of IP law. We have a globally broken system in that America subsidizes the world medicinally. American companies research and develop many (not all) drugs. Americans then pay out their asshole for those drugs. Other countries then get to make those drugs for "free". Not free free. But they get to ignore the R&D costs. Eventually the camel's back will break. Research costs will become too high for 300m out of 7b to pay for. Then we can figure out a new system that works better. This is probably a good thing. I don't know what the system looks like though. No one does.

jacobolus 11y ago
American taxpayers fund most of the basic research through public grants to universities. The pharmaceutical industry pays for clinical trials, marketing, and bribing doctors and government officials all over the world.
- ekianjo 11y ago
  > The pharmaceutical industry pays for clinical trials, marketing, and bribing doctors and government officials all over the world. Bribing goes both ways. Politicians and Doctors actively WANT to be bribed as well, let's not pretend they are victims.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
myth_buster 11y ago
Americans then pay out their asshole for those drugs. Other countries then get to make those drugs for "free". Not free free. But they get to ignore the R&D costs. Eventually the camel's back will break. Research costs will become too high for 300m out of 7b to pay for. This "Drug industry scare card" is easily refuted [0] (check the table). But as the table below shows, drug companies spend far more on marketing drugs - in some cases twice as much - than on developing them. And besides, profit margins take into account R&D costs. [0] http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28212223 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28212223
- forrestthewoods 11y ago
  Few people dispute that it costs a billion dollars or so to bring a new drug to market. That's a heavy cost foreign manufacturers don't have to pay. The fact that marketing is a higher spend is irrelevant. It's like free2play on mobile. You spend a bunch of money developing something. If you can spend $.90 in user acquisition to earn back $1.00 then you throw every single dollar you can muster so long as the benefit is higher than the cost. It's a diminishing returns equation so you do as long as you can. The highest grossing games have marketing campaigns on the order of $100,000,000. Basically the same thing here. Take out as many loans as you can so long as it works.
  - pavedwalden 11y ago
    I'm not saying you're wrong, but it struck me as funny to see a much-criticised practice in the pharmaceutical industry being defended by comparing it to F2P mobile games, which are also widely reviled.
    - forrestthewoods 11y ago
      Hah. I'm no fan of the f2p mobile gaming industry myself. But the math is very straight forward there. It exists for non-f2p games as well but it's less obvious and clear.
  - duaneb 11y ago
    I don't think they're questioning the business efficacy, I think they're questioning the need for protections for the industry.
    - tsotha 11y ago
      I don't see how Pharmaceutical companies can exist without IP protections, unless you're willing to publicly fund the entire development cycle. For the vast majority of drugs the cost of producing the tablet you take is just a few cents, which is dwarfed by the amortized cost of the R&D. Nobody is going to spend on R&D if competitors can skip that part and go right to production.
pavanky 11y ago
Can you name some drugs whose IP has been immediately broken by other countries? From what I have read India is breaking IP laws for life saving medicines and / or trivial modifications to existing products.
emodendroket 11y ago
Lots of programmings jobs could easily exist without any IP protection at all (if you're writing the server-side code for a Web-based product, nobody ever gets the opportunity to pirate the code) so you're going a little bit too far.
PietdeVries 11y ago
Then again, as long as the big pharmaceuticals still have a profit margin of 25% or so I don't think they are the victims here... Point is that there are two sides to this coin: the pharmaceuticals charging way too much for their medicine and the Indian companies copy-catting/piggy backing on the US R&D
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
presty 11y ago
> Everyone on this board has a career because of IP law. I don't know about that. I think more people here have a career thanks to open source. It has proven that it's a lot more effective than the barriers to knowledge.
- J_Darnley 11y ago
  I think the stranger thing is that he thinks everyone here has a career or even works.

jacobolus 11y ago

American taxpayers fund most of the basic research through public grants to universities. The pharmaceutical industry pays for clinical trials, marketing, and bribing doctors and government officials all over the world.

ekianjo 11y ago
> The pharmaceutical industry pays for clinical trials, marketing, and bribing doctors and government officials all over the world. Bribing goes both ways. Politicians and Doctors actively WANT to be bribed as well, let's not pretend they are victims.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

myth_buster 11y ago

Americans then pay out their asshole for those drugs. Other countries then get to make those drugs for "free". Not free free. But they get to ignore the R&D costs. Eventually the camel's back will break. Research costs will become too high for 300m out of 7b to pay for. This "Drug industry scare card" is easily refuted [0] (check the table). But as the table below shows, drug companies spend far more on marketing drugs - in some cases twice as much - than on developing them. And besides, profit margins take into account R&D costs. [0] http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28212223 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28212223

forrestthewoods 11y ago
Few people dispute that it costs a billion dollars or so to bring a new drug to market. That's a heavy cost foreign manufacturers don't have to pay. The fact that marketing is a higher spend is irrelevant. It's like free2play on mobile. You spend a bunch of money developing something. If you can spend $.90 in user acquisition to earn back $1.00 then you throw every single dollar you can muster so long as the benefit is higher than the cost. It's a diminishing returns equation so you do as long as you can. The highest grossing games have marketing campaigns on the order of $100,000,000. Basically the same thing here. Take out as many loans as you can so long as it works.
- pavedwalden 11y ago
  I'm not saying you're wrong, but it struck me as funny to see a much-criticised practice in the pharmaceutical industry being defended by comparing it to F2P mobile games, which are also widely reviled.
  - forrestthewoods 11y ago
    Hah. I'm no fan of the f2p mobile gaming industry myself. But the math is very straight forward there. It exists for non-f2p games as well but it's less obvious and clear.
- duaneb 11y ago
  I don't think they're questioning the business efficacy, I think they're questioning the need for protections for the industry.
  - tsotha 11y ago
    I don't see how Pharmaceutical companies can exist without IP protections, unless you're willing to publicly fund the entire development cycle. For the vast majority of drugs the cost of producing the tablet you take is just a few cents, which is dwarfed by the amortized cost of the R&D. Nobody is going to spend on R&D if competitors can skip that part and go right to production.

pavanky 11y ago

Can you name some drugs whose IP has been immediately broken by other countries? From what I have read India is breaking IP laws for life saving medicines and / or trivial modifications to existing products.

emodendroket 11y ago

Lots of programmings jobs could easily exist without any IP protection at all (if you're writing the server-side code for a Web-based product, nobody ever gets the opportunity to pirate the code) so you're going a little bit too far.

PietdeVries 11y ago

Then again, as long as the big pharmaceuticals still have a profit margin of 25% or so I don't think they are the victims here... Point is that there are two sides to this coin: the pharmaceuticals charging way too much for their medicine and the Indian companies copy-catting/piggy backing on the US R&D

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

presty 11y ago

> Everyone on this board has a career because of IP law. I don't know about that. I think more people here have a career thanks to open source. It has proven that it's a lot more effective than the barriers to knowledge.

J_Darnley 11y ago
I think the stranger thing is that he thinks everyone here has a career or even works.