The cost of research for a new drug is dwarfed by the cost to get it approved by the FDA, and dwarfed again by further marketing costs. Not to mention most "res

The cost of research for a new drug is dwarfed by the cost to get it approved by the FDA, and dwarfed again by further marketing costs. Not to mention most "researched" drugs are just "me-too" copies of financially successful drugs. Not to mention that of the top 46 selling drugs worldwide, 20 of them do not owe their existence to patents. And the case for pharmaceutical patents just gets worse and worse, it's a great case study of patents being totally ineffective in encouraging innovation or benefiting the consumer. http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/papers/imbookfinal09.pdf http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/papers/imbookfinal09.pdf