Just kidding. A good day for mail; a bad day for innovation. From Mario Stargard:

Here in Canada, Big Pharma won a case brought by Generic drug manufacturers challenging the constitutionality of protecting research results of drugs. Ironically, the companies whose drugs are being protected in this scheme are called the innovators. Seems to me that by preventing Generics from using study data for 8 years means that they have little to no chance to innovate further advances which in turn slows down everybody's innovation, except big pharma, of course, as they will always have access to their own data. As we've seen before, large companies with IP protection are not known for innovation.

link here

Mario

When a generic copies a drug developed by someone else, gaining approval based on the clinical trials funded by someone else, that is innovative? By law, a generic is required to produce a chemical that is identical to the original chemical. Where does the innovation arise? Or, what innovations would supposedly be blocked?

Drug companies routinely repackage identical drugs to extend patent protection. The patent is issued on the basis that this repackaging, be it a new release mechanism or application, is fundamentally different and non-obvious enough. The active ingredients in these repackaged drugs is the same. Look at all the different forms of Ritalin.

Since generics don't even have access to the study data, how are they to play in this arena?

What's odd is that for pediatric medicines, the study data is hidden for an additional 6 months after the 8 years is over. I wonder what the reasoning behind that is?

Right, 60 Adderal cost about 30$ 30 Adderal XR cost about $180 . Guess which one is patented? If you have XR at the end of it, you can bet it's patented.

Mario:

I would love to see an issued patent for a drug that was repackaged to extend patent protection that has issued in the last several years.