A few highlights from the article:
“The debate over global drug pricing is one of the most contentious issues between developed countries and the developing world. While poorer nations maintain they have a moral obligation to make cheaper, generic drugs available to their populations — by limiting patents in some cases — the brand name pharmaceutical companies contend the profits they reap are essential to their ability to develop and manufacture innovative medicines…
In Monday’s decision, India’s Supreme Court ruled that the patent that Novartis sought for Gleevec did not represent a true invention…
Leena Menghaney, a patient advocate at Doctors Without Borders, said that the ruling was a reprieve from more expensive medicines, but only for a while…”
The pricing of drugs is probably one of the most contentious issues between developed and developing nations. Countries like India, Argentina, Brazil, and Thailand that manufacture generic drug, which go on sale at affordable prices, have passed laws ameliorating the deleterious effects of the decreased expiration date on phony patents.
Although profits are essential to innovation in science, why are there so many me-too drugs (i.e. Nexium, statins, etc.)? And why are there fewer phase I clinical trials and a surge in phase 2 and 3, which only test the effect of slight variations on old drugs?
If you are interested in this issue you should read “The Truth About Drug Companies” by Marcia Angell.