3 ms·

I think one thing that India has got right is the patent system. As I understand, you can't patent as product in India, you can only patent the process. Thus mu

by slaxman 13y ago

I think one thing that India has got right is the patent system. As I understand, you can't patent as product in India, you can only patent the process. Thus multiple companies can have multiple process patent on the same product. This actually encourages innovation and keep prices low (especially for drugs). $65,000 is extremely expensive considering that the average annual income in India is a mere $2000.

melling 13y ago
Am I missing something because I'm not sure that a lot of new drug research is coming out of India. It would be great if there was because we could probably double the amount of new medicines.
- Daishiman 13y ago
  You would have to prove that there would be more drug development in India without the current process, and I really doubt it would change anything.
  - melling 13y ago
    How much drug research is done now? Can you quantify it in dollars or drugs produced?
    - Daishiman 13y ago
      I'm asking you because evidently nobody knows, so all this speculation about the disadvantages of their policy seems to me like smoke and mirrors.
denzil_correa 13y ago
OTOH, The bureaucracy in the patent application process is a sorry state of affairs. The US PTO normal applications are processed faster than India PTO expedited applications.
ta43434 13y ago
That defeats the purpose of patents for drugs. It's convenient for drugs that have already been discovered and validated, but the difficult part of making a drug is not the chemical process to produce it, but knowing which chemical to produce in the first place. Knowing where to tap with the hammer, if you will. If you want there to be no patents for drugs, that's an argument to make, but this type of "patent" is just a fig leaf for not having patents at all.
- slaxman 13y ago
  While that is one way of looking at it. It also encourages other companies to put in effort in finding different processes to produce the product. Whether the amount of effort involved is substantial or not is a different matter, but the end result is that drugs are very cheap in India (as it should be). Companies try to make money at scale and not by squeezing their customers dry. My dentist recently told me about 2 drugs which are essentially the same. The drug made by the foreign company costs Rs. 200 (approx $4). On the other hand the India generic version costs Rs. 30 (approx 50cents).
  - aaronem 13y ago
    > My dentist recently told me about 2 drugs which are essentially the same. The drug made by the foreign company costs Rs. 200 (approx $4). On the other hand the India generic version costs Rs. 30 (approx 50cents). Well, sure. All the hard work's already done for the company making the generic version; even complex syntheses are trivial by comparison with the staggering amount of effort required to find and validate an effective new drug.

by slaxman 13y ago

melling 13y ago

Am I missing something because I'm not sure that a lot of new drug research is coming out of India. It would be great if there was because we could probably double the amount of new medicines.

Daishiman 13y ago
You would have to prove that there would be more drug development in India without the current process, and I really doubt it would change anything.
- melling 13y ago
  How much drug research is done now? Can you quantify it in dollars or drugs produced?
  - Daishiman 13y ago
    I'm asking you because evidently nobody knows, so all this speculation about the disadvantages of their policy seems to me like smoke and mirrors.

denzil_correa 13y ago

OTOH, The bureaucracy in the patent application process is a sorry state of affairs. The US PTO normal applications are processed faster than India PTO expedited applications.

ta43434 13y ago

That defeats the purpose of patents for drugs. It's convenient for drugs that have already been discovered and validated, but the difficult part of making a drug is not the chemical process to produce it, but knowing which chemical to produce in the first place. Knowing where to tap with the hammer, if you will. If you want there to be no patents for drugs, that's an argument to make, but this type of "patent" is just a fig leaf for not having patents at all.

slaxman 13y ago
While that is one way of looking at it. It also encourages other companies to put in effort in finding different processes to produce the product. Whether the amount of effort involved is substantial or not is a different matter, but the end result is that drugs are very cheap in India (as it should be). Companies try to make money at scale and not by squeezing their customers dry. My dentist recently told me about 2 drugs which are essentially the same. The drug made by the foreign company costs Rs. 200 (approx $4). On the other hand the India generic version costs Rs. 30 (approx 50cents).
- aaronem 13y ago
  > My dentist recently told me about 2 drugs which are essentially the same. The drug made by the foreign company costs Rs. 200 (approx $4). On the other hand the India generic version costs Rs. 30 (approx 50cents). Well, sure. All the hard work's already done for the company making the generic version; even complex syntheses are trivial by comparison with the staggering amount of effort required to find and validate an effective new drug.