Why allow patents when they’re a licence to print money?
It costs around $800 million and 7 years’ works to get the average new drug to market. Most patents run for 20 years, including development time. So Big Pharma firms have maybe 13 years to make their money back and often less. Generics companies make money because they have no research costs and lower testing costs than the research-based pharmaceutical companies. They thrive by offering drugs at a small discount compared to patent-owners with their high costs. They tend to be cheap only when there is lots of competition. Here’s some powerful UN evidence on the workings of the generics and patented markets.
