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Against Monopoly

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Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely.





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Time: drug patents sick

Time magazine enters the drug patent debate with an article on a Government Accountability Office study which reports that the bulk of the growing amount of research money is going into “me-to” drugs rather than real innovation (link here). The study notes that the amount spent more than doubled over a ten-year span but the number of ground breaking drugs submitted for FDA approval grew a modest 7 percent, even as the basic science was turning up a large number of promising new leads.

Suggestions for reform were small beer, including more collaboration among government, industry and academia; more scholarships to train "translational" researchers to bridge the gap between basic science and medicine; more incentives for innovative drug research; and patents for breakthrough drugs extended from the current 20 years to 25-30 years, and those for "me too" drugs shortened to 10 years.

Too bad that Time failed to address just abolishing the drug patent system or Stiglitz' idea to have government fund drug development costs.


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