Actually, I'm a PHYSICIAN, not an IP Lawyer. Semi-retired, work at a free / income-based clinic a couple of days a week and don't get paid. I pay my own malpractice insurance, license fees, and other expenses in order to do so. If it were to get too expensive or require too much red tape, I would have to stop helping those patients.
I'm glad that for-profit drug companies have given me tools to improve and save lives. If they were to stop doing so, people would suffer.
Pro Tip: don't pick my motives based on your preconceived notions.
If I were Abbott Labs or another "big pharma" company and read enough nonsense statements like "I think what is unfair is that people make a profit out of other people's suffering" I would be SO TEMPTED to just pull a John Galt and go home instead of listening to this idealistic crap.
Kaletra / Aluvia cost Abbott Labs a small fortune to develop and get approved. And what if, at the last minute, a snag developed and approval could not be granted? All that money would have been gone, and that happens all of the time with medications which seem promising but never come to market.
If you take away the profit incentive to take these risks, then fewer risks will be taken and fewer new drugs will be developed. When the new-drug pipeline dries up, people will die.
The case of Kaletra / Aluvia is even more disturbing. When Abbott developed original formulation of ritonavir / lopinavir, it worked just fine. But other countries, such as INDIA, BRAZIL, and African nations went back to Abbott and said "we need a version that doesn't have to be refrigerated, that requires fewer pills a day, and can be taken without regard to meals." ABBOTT DID THIS FOR THEM. Spent more zillions of dollars creating this new formulation. Even produced a lower-cost version (Aluvia) for these developing nations. And now they want to take this thing that Abbott created and sell it as a generic.
Abbott Lab's CEO is on record as being committed to the developing world. He's a better man than I. I would probably get out of the business of developing life-saving drugs and go to the beach.
Re: Re: If I were "Big Pharma"
Actually, I'm a PHYSICIAN, not an IP Lawyer. Semi-retired, work at a free / income-based clinic a couple of days a week and don't get paid. I pay my own malpractice insurance, license fees, and other expenses in order to do so. If it were to get too expensive or require too much red tape, I would have to stop helping those patients.
I'm glad that for-profit drug companies have given me tools to improve and save lives. If they were to stop doing so, people would suffer.
Pro Tip: don't pick my motives based on your preconceived notions.
If I were "Big Pharma"
If I were Abbott Labs or another "big pharma" company and read enough nonsense statements like "I think what is unfair is that people make a profit out of other people's suffering" I would be SO TEMPTED to just pull a John Galt and go home instead of listening to this idealistic crap.
Kaletra / Aluvia cost Abbott Labs a small fortune to develop and get approved. And what if, at the last minute, a snag developed and approval could not be granted? All that money would have been gone, and that happens all of the time with medications which seem promising but never come to market.
If you take away the profit incentive to take these risks, then fewer risks will be taken and fewer new drugs will be developed. When the new-drug pipeline dries up, people will die.
The case of Kaletra / Aluvia is even more disturbing. When Abbott developed original formulation of ritonavir / lopinavir, it worked just fine. But other countries, such as INDIA, BRAZIL, and African nations went back to Abbott and said "we need a version that doesn't have to be refrigerated, that requires fewer pills a day, and can be taken without regard to meals." ABBOTT DID THIS FOR THEM. Spent more zillions of dollars creating this new formulation. Even produced a lower-cost version (Aluvia) for these developing nations. And now they want to take this thing that Abbott created and sell it as a generic.
Abbott Lab's CEO is on record as being committed to the developing world. He's a better man than I. I would probably get out of the business of developing life-saving drugs and go to the beach.
BOFH...
This is a BOFH episode just dying to be written!
Are you listening, Simon?