> Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> From: "Deborah Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > You are not taking into account the advances made
> >by universities and publicly-funded institutes.
> > For-profit drug companies *are not* the only or
> > even primary sources of drug innovation.
> So, if we looked, we'd see that most of the drug
> patents are held by
> governments and universities? Or are you talking
> about something different
> when you speak of innovation.
Correct: drug _development_ is without question the
purview of the pharmas (as I stated in a post a while
ago, but that _was_ a ways back!). Drug _discovery_
comes from multiple sources, sometimes quite
accidentally (frex a herpetologist working with a
snake venom). I'll see if I can find some articles
again. Drug uses can also come from outside the
company; these are termed "off-label" and frequently
are incidentally noted by doctors or researchers
working with various drugs. From such off-label
properties a company might work out another chemical
variant of the drug that emphasizes the 'new'
property.
> I have a number of friends who work developing
> drugs. They work and worked
> for small and large companies. I know folks who do
> fundamental research who
> work for the government, but I do not recall the
> government being in the
> drug developement business.
>
> If this sample is non-representative, then I'd
> appreciate some information
> on how the drugs that governments have developed,
> and how the prices of those are determined.
Once again, it isn't profit I'm against, but excessive
profiteering and protectionism (as in the recent
Medicare bill which denies the gov't. any right to
bargaining for lower drug prices, and blocking drugs
from other Western or Western-equivalent countries, eg
Canada, Germany, Japan). The pharm industries'
_advertising budget_ is larger than R&D
allocations(previously cited articles).
> The one exception I can see might be vacines....but
> that can partially be
> explained by the overwhelming risk associated with
> developing vaccines.
Yes, that is a problem.
Debbi
Once Again Grateful For Naproxefen Maru :)
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