Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Where would be the incentive for drugs companies to spend billions on developing new drugs, if there was no patent protection, and their rivals could just copy and manufacture the drugs for pennies?
Please do explain your ideas!
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It is actually quite easy. If the company has spent billions in developing a new drug then it deserves patent protection for certain period.
The greatest value of a new drug is regulatory approval. To receive this approval it has to do very costly and lengthy clinical trials. The drug formula and even the manufacturing process are cheap by comparison. Even if Indians can legally produce the same drug cheaper because the formula is not protected by their patent law, no regulatory agency will approve this drug in the EU because no clinical trials have been run.
The new system would require more transparency. If Apple can prove that it has justifiably spent millions of dollars on inventing a better hyperlink/design etc., it deserves patent protection. But simple aha moments should not count because they happen by chance or are based on the totality of previous knowledge.