Quote:
Originally Posted by blue_skies
That would be wonderful! Pharmaceutical drugs are responsible for destroying the health of so many people and wrecking the economy in the process. [...] If getting rid of the patent system helps to stop greedy and evil Big-Pharma... then I am all for it!
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I don't thinking scrapping patents would end the creation of new drugs. The funding model for R&D would change -- more taxpayer funded research? -- and the overall number of new meds would (I suppose) decrease. The kinds of new medicines created might also change, possibly for the better.
I for one am glad for modern pharmaceuticals. I'd have killed myself years ago without modern drugs, because of severe & constant pain. Or, I'd have had to take "natural" remedies like marijuana or opium, which would leave my mind in a constant fog. So, I say "three cheers" to the chemists.
Over-prescribing is indeed a problem, but it's not a problem inherent to the creation/manufacture of medicines. I'll agree that Big Pharma is "greedy and evil" in many respects, but not because they create new drugs.