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> Eliminate patents for everything except FDA-regulated drugs. I agree the patent system has its problems, but I'm curious: Why that one exception, but no othe
by dctoedt 16y ago
> Eliminate patents for everything except FDA-regulated drugs.
I agree the patent system has its problems, but I'm curious: Why that one exception, but no others? What about, say, medical devices? And then where do you draw the line -- and why there and not somewhere else? (These are issues that legislators, lawyers, and judges have to deal with all the time.)
- marshray 16y agoI know it's odd and inconsistent, but a concession to reality: it takes years of investment to develop a new drug and then years of government-imposed studies to be allowed to actually market it. The second part is necessarily a public process so competitors would have nearly as much time as the developer to ramp up their production process. A term like 'ten years after FDA approval or 15 after FDA submission' sounds about right. Maybe something more like a short-term copyright on the molecule would make more sense than patents on general concepts that are usually just imitating nature. Medical devices - well maybe, but I wouldn't want to stretch it. I've know companies that had stuff that comes in a syringe and goes in the human body to be regulated as a "device" and companies that made products to dispense drugs not regulated at all. They patented basic stuff like the idea of sorting work items into plastic baskets in alphabetical order.
- ZeroGravitas 16y agoIf we're going to support government monopolies for drugs, why not just fund them directly from taxes? At least then we can direct them not to waste their energy creating minor variations on drugs as they fall out of patent protection, or chasing lucrative pill-per-day treatments for lifestyle diseases of the rich and instead focus on curing illnesses that blight large numbers of people across the globe.