I think bio-tech is VERY fat right now. There was a 2005 study of new drugs submitted for patent - I believe it was something like: 7 out of 80 were curing new

I think bio-tech is VERY fat right now. There was a 2005 study of new drugs submitted for patent - I believe it was something like: 7 out of 80 were curing new diseases or improved ways of treating current one. The others being "me-too" drugs trying to get around patents - this means that the majority of research is actually going towards getting around others' patents - what a waste of resources! Oh yea - who made those 7 drugs? All publicly funded (NSF/NIH) through universities. So who's incentives are these patents helping? I think we should selectively subsidize the FDA approval process so we can commercialize drugs for real diseases. I'm fine with companies submitting vanity drugs (Latisse for eyelashes or something), but they have to pay full price.