3 ms·
I'm trying not to show my ignorance by saying something terribly wrong, but my sense is that the patent system works better in pharma than in software. Pharma c
by Wowfunhappy 5y ago
I'm trying not to show my ignorance by saying something terribly wrong, but my sense is that the patent system works better in pharma than in software. Pharma companies don't need to patent algorithms, but—this is where I hope I'm not saying something wrong—I think they can patent e.g. molecules?
Certainly, the first company to the market with a drug is usually rewarded pretty heavily, until generics come online 20 years later.
- sterlind 5y agothey can patent molecules and synthetic routes. but once one company shows that targeting a particular receptor works, or binding to some site on a protein, other companies can find drugs that so the same thing but look different. for instance, Prozac was a breakthrough (the first SSRI), but it was easy for other companies to make their own SSRIs.