Drug patents have 20 years from the time of invention, but getting FDA approval takes 10 years after invention so that really only leaves you with a 10 year mon

Drug patents have 20 years from the time of invention, but getting FDA approval takes 10 years after invention so that really only leaves you with a 10 year monopoly. I think people are under the impression that the government is giving like 75% of the funding for drug development. It’s more like 1%. Getting FDA approval is a very arduous and expensive process. If you want to build an insulin factory, you’re looking at 8-10 years and $100 million to prove to the government that your insulin is safe to use. [1] That’s just for making generic insulin. Developing a new drug from scratch and getting it approved is orders of magnitude harder. A 6 month monopoly wouldn’t be close enough to recoup your costs. [1]: https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20190405.396631/full/ https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20190405....