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And those companies with the capability to do it wouldn't have existed. There needs to be a mechanism to profit from the R&D. Point blank. It doesn't have to b
by adam_arthur 5y ago
And those companies with the capability to do it wouldn't have existed.
There needs to be a mechanism to profit from the R&D. Point blank. It doesn't have to be through patents... We can create a new system if a better one is devised. But fundamentally, nobody will invest billions of dollars into a venture that is guaranteed not to be profitable.
The alternative is fully public funded research.
- stale2002 5y ago> The alternative is fully public funded research. So then you agree with me completely that these companies would have existed and would have researched the covid vaccine, because literally as I just said before, the government offered a bunch of money for it, which is "public funded research". Glad you agree with me entirely, but I guess also just wanted to restate my argument slightly, for no reason.
- adam_arthur 5y agoI don't agree at all. If the patent system didn't exist, there would be no companies with the capability to develop the vaccine. Because there's no profit motive. The government would be willing to fund a vaccine, but there would be no capability to create it. What is difficult to understand about that? Do you think we could create a new vaccine within a year if there were no companies with multi billion dollar R&D teams? Could we build iOS or Android if there were no software developers?
- stale2002 5y agoYou literally just said that the alternative is public funding.
- adam_arthur 5y agoAre you dense, or what? I very clearly laid out why, even if there were a will to publicly finance a covid vaccine, the capabilities to do so wouldn't exist in a world where pharmaceutical companies couldn't profit from R&D. You can't finance towards an outcome if you have no structural capability to reach it. You know, the last few hundred years biotech companies have spent developing the capacity, know how, ability to invent new drugs and vaccines? All of which was supported by a patent system allowing them to profit from their creations. What part of that is difficult to understand? Do I need to make it clearer somehow? Is it too challenging to understand the nuance of structural capability vs financing something in the moment?
- stale2002 5y agoI am not sure why you would say that the alternative is public funding, if you did not think that public funding was an alternative.