In a previous lifetime I happened to work for a biotechnology startup whose biz was to create an HIV vaccine (and other retroviruses like Ebola etc). The industry is BIG BUSINESS, with emphasis on *business*. The R&D budget included big chunks of money, in kind and in research facilities, from the government.

Among big pharmaceutical companies (big pharma), a lot more money is invested in marketing than in R&D, and an alarming number of drugs aren't new at all, just tweaks of existing drugs.

The myth of big pharma spending billions on research, hence the need to protect their legitimate investments by hook is crook is... just a myth.

Here's more info from Marcia Angell, a former Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious scientific journal, the New England Journal of Medicine. The article title: The Truth About the Drug Companies. She has written a lot more about the subject, more links are in the article.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17244

While you're at it, you might also want to check out this related article on big pharma and H1N1: "Does the Vaccine Matter?"

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1

It is quite distressing, in light of the article, to realize that Canada's vaccination effort has cost us $1.5 billion (that's a 'b'), and the bill is still climbing, expected to go beyond $2 billion. All this in the midst of an economic crisis.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/h1n1-swine-flu/cost-of-vaccinating-the-nation-hits-15-billion-and-climbing/article1360311/

So, put aside the myth of big pharma spending billions in research. A good chunk of that research is paid for by the government anyway, in the form of research grants to universities or directly to individual researchers.

Saidi

On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 2:34 AM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> wrote:

You will be surprised then to learn many pharmaceutical concoctions were never patented (vaccines ..e.g. smallpox .. and antibiotics like pennicilin). The modern pharmaceutical industry exists on the basis of these non-patented inventions. How do you explain that ?

I agree, but how much money was invested? How much money has currently been invested in getting an HIV vaccine? With many of these drugs, millions of dollars at times billions are invested into medical research. Now sadly, when the drug is released, the pharmaceutical has to recover this income one way or another. When they factor that into the cost, many say it's immoral and insist on generics, however, this in the long term reduces the pharmaceutical industry's need to seek a cure for say Cancer/AIDS as they know that someone will be allowed to produce a generic drug and they will loose several (b)millions in research.

I was once speaking to a pharmaceutical researcher whose view was basically that the reason more and more pharmaceutical firms are going to the outer limits of research (v14gr4 <spammer pun intended>, steroids etc) is simply because  no one will make generics and the few who do will be sued. These are drugs with high demand yet not critical, no one can say they will die if they don't get their little blue pill, the converse is probably true.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to see clearer rational for patents *Game Theory At Work - How To Use Game Theory To Outthink And Outmaneuver Your Competition, by James Miller*



--
With Regards,

Phares Kariuki

| T: +254 734 810 802 | E: pkariuki@gmail.com | Twitter: kaboro | Skype: kariukiphares |

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