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Point 4 is hard to believe, and without it you're describing a well functioning system that promotes investment in new technology.
by acgourley 12y ago
Point 4 is hard to believe, and without it you're describing a well functioning system that promotes investment in new technology.
- UrMomReadsHN 12y agoPoint 4 is known as "Evergreening" and it surely happens. An example I can think of off the top of my head is Lexapro.
- toomuchtodo 12y agoPfizer tried to do this in Canada with Viagra, and the Canadian Supreme Court invalidated their patent in return. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/pfizer-caught-gaming-the-system-loses-viagra-patent-in-canada/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/pfizer-caught-gam...
- crpatino 12y agoEven assuming point 4 does not hold up, the GP is describing a system that promotes arbitrarily long development cycles. i.e. if it takes 5 years to develop the next generation of a drug, but the patent expires after 20 years, you are basically rewarding the whole industry to do no more than 25-30% of technically feasible R&D.