3 ms·
Why not allow patents to last 5 years, or 10? So the economic incentive remains while it becomes affordable soon enough; the Epipen was created in the mid 70s,
by notgood 10y ago
Why not allow patents to last 5 years, or 10? So the economic incentive remains while it becomes affordable soon enough; the Epipen was created in the mid 70s, it makes no sense for it to still have an enforceable patent.
- vonmoltke 10y ago> the Epipen was created in the mid 70s, it makes no sense for it to still have an enforceable patent. The Epipen does not "still have an enforceable patent" because there is not an Epipen; there is a series of them. The original design is not encumbered by a patent. The specific problem with patents and drugs or medical devices is the FDA decisions on what products are interchangeable. The reason drug companies get away with these "minor tweak" patents is that the FDA doesn't see the changes as minor, and so will not permit a prescription written for a new patented version to be filled with a generic based on the old unpatented version. You can make the argument in this case that the problem is not patents per se, but the interaction of patents with prescription drug regulations. These sorts of "tweak patents" are useless outside the world of prescription drugs.