Re: US Senate call to scrap HIV drug patents

[Guest guest]

"What drives up US prices is the government patent system that grants monopolies to pharmaceutical companies that develop new drugs, Sen told the hearing, held by the panel's subcommittee in primary health and ageing, which he chairs. As far as he knew, he said, this was "the first Congressional hearing ever held to discuss the possibility of ending monopolies for medicines and offering a serious proposal to replace our broken system with one that would accelerate innovation while providing virtually universal access to life-saving medicines."An interesting idea. How do you propose to compensate for innovation and the costs of investments, and provide more affordable medications, as well? I first saw this idea proposed at an AIDS Society meeting in Geneva, in 1998 or 2000. The idea is that you would compensate up front, in a bulk payment, for drug discovery, but that sales, manufacture, and distribution would be handled by separate operations, that could make the drugs more affordably.Love the idea, but it sounds like something that has a snowball's chance in hell of going anywhere.JB

[Guest guest]

Mark makes an interesting point. My opinion is somewhere in the middle. There has to be a compromise between $200 generics and $25000 full price which allows a profit to encourage research but stops short of bankrupting the country and the patients, as does the current totally screwed up health care system. 

It's like my first experience with Lypodystrophy about a decade ago. When i told the hospital it was my nickel for the surgery, they said $2500 up front. When i won the battle with the insurance company the hospital billed $14000, and the insurance company gave them $7000, a profit of $4500. Pathetic

___________ Potrero HillSan Francisco<<Money is the biggest and often only motivation for people to do anything removing patents would only lead to the end of new medications Anyone thinking other wise is just naive.

As unfair as the present system might be we are all enjoying the results of a free market economy and with out money motivation there would be no discovery or improvements of any kinds in any and all fields of science