"But consider this; the vast majority of medicines associated with new drug patents are not new. Nearly 8 out of 10 are for existing ones, like insulin or aspirin.

My organisation, a team of lawyers and scientists, recently conducted an investigation into the 12 best-selling drugs in [US]America. We found that on average, there are 125 patents filed on each medicine. Often for things we've known how to do for decades ..."

#PritiKrishtel, 2020

https://www.ted.com/talks/priti_krishtel_why_are_drug_prices_so_high_investigating_the_outdated_us_patent_system?rss=

#patents #DrugPatents

(1/?)

@CatherineOrganic1
> Patent law in medicine means good medicines are dumped for the new and unproven

Indeed. Also there's a powerful incentive to fund research into novel chemicals or equipment that might get patents. But little or no incentive to research generic plant medicines, or non-medicinal treatments, which probably won't. Even where there's good reason to believe they might be more effective and cheaper to provide.

#patents #DrugPatents

The second one is that public debate, including on health policy, has been kept between a very narrow set of goalposts. Fixing Pharmac is the most ambitious thing the panelists can come up with. No discussion of abolishing drug patents - as we have with software patents - so our health system can manufacture the medicines we need at cost.

#Pharmac #DrugPatents