Comments on: IP’s Worst Nightmare http://copyrightcommerceandculture.com/2009/11/12/ips-worst-nightmare/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed E59.1405, The Media, Culture, and Communications Department at the Steinhardt School of Education at NYU Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:50:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: superhawk http://copyrightcommerceandculture.com/2009/11/12/ips-worst-nightmare/comment-page-1/#comment-107 superhawk Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:25:00 +0000 http://copyrightcommerceandculture.com/?p=558#comment-107 I definitely see where the drug companies are coming from. Research and Development is expensive and despite the money you spend, the drug or treatment you end up producing might be a dud or could be held up by the FDA. However, I also remember hearing somewhere before, that the way that pharmaceutical companies research for these drugs is essentially by reversing the scientific method (i.e. I have a definite conclusion / result I want to reach, find me the process that'll get me there), and that using this method could speed the process of development for a certain drug or treatment but at a very high cost. This is, no doubt, a very problematic issue, but much more so in America, where our nationalism will kick in once we see perceived "hand-outs" given to foreign countries when plenty of people in the US could use those medicines as well (to their credit, the drug companies do have some drug affordability programs). one way we might be able to help developing countries gain access to patented medical treatment is to create a small section of the FDA that indexes the price of these drugs against the average standard of living of the country they're sold in. That way, companies have a formal structure that (hopefully) will not be exploited by grandstanding politicians while at the same time allowing poorer countries to gain access to current and effective treatments. I definitely see where the drug companies are coming from. Research and Development is expensive and despite the money you spend, the drug or treatment you end up producing might be a dud or could be held up by the FDA. However, I also remember hearing somewhere before, that the way that pharmaceutical companies research for these drugs is essentially by reversing the scientific method (i.e. I have a definite conclusion / result I want to reach, find me the process that’ll get me there), and that using this method could speed the process of development for a certain drug or treatment but at a very high cost.

This is, no doubt, a very problematic issue, but much more so in America, where our nationalism will kick in once we see perceived “hand-outs” given to foreign countries when plenty of people in the US could use those medicines as well (to their credit, the drug companies do have some drug affordability programs). one way we might be able to help developing countries gain access to patented medical treatment is to create a small section of the FDA that indexes the price of these drugs against the average standard of living of the country they’re sold in. That way, companies have a formal structure that (hopefully) will not be exploited by grandstanding politicians while at the same time allowing poorer countries to gain access to current and effective treatments.

]]>