Going viral on the internet: Bayer gets patent busted in India for important drug.

Discussion in 'Stocks' started by Publicus, Mar 13, 2012.

  1. Publicus

    Publicus

  2. DT-waw

    DT-waw

    turmeric, sunlight, goji berries, good sleep, hemp oil, cashews and almonds are much cheaper than any drug and 100x more effective.

    but people are consumers, love to spend as much as possible on total crap.
    for example, mothers buy vaccines with mercury for their newborn babies and think they're smart and "educated" :D
     
  3. Just another form of legalized theft. It's no different from some rogue country expropriating oil fields, etc. I would bet the company that got the rights to produce it bribed half the indian government or is secretly controlled by some pol.

    The cost of life-saving drugs is a thorny issue but just stealing patents is not the answer.
     
  4. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

    The U.S. and the world has been gouged by the pharmaceutical industry for years. This is especially in true in the U.S. where the drug prices are generally 4 to 10 times higher than other other western nations for the same drug. All the while, the pharma industry claims that this is needed for their "research and development", but the math does not bear out their claims.

    It was only a matter of time until governments said "Enough of this B.S.", and started taking direct action to produce patented drugs locally at reasonable costs. Most of these drugs can be produced for under 5% of the price charged by the big pharma firm.
     
  5. piezoe

    piezoe

    I have heard, but don't know if it is true that big pharma spends more on advertising and promotion than on research and development. They are in business to make money!

    I do know as a fact that it is not unusual for makers of medical devices, such as heart pacers, to provide all expenses paid, short luxury vacations for M.D.'s and their spouses in conjunction with promotional presentations. Perhaps some pharmaceutical companies promote drugs this way. Obviously this is more expensive than other types of less focused advertising.

    The U.S. system of medical care is a government protected Cartel. For privately insured patients, the insurance company stands between the patient and the provider. This has not proved to be an effective arrangement for holding down costs. Insurance companies attempt to charge the highest premium they can, while paying out as little to providers as possible. They are also in business to make money. The providers, on the other hand attempt to charge as much as possible. They are in business to make money too.

    One result of this headlong rush for Cartel profits by these competition-less enterprises has been that the cost of paper work associated with U.S. health care is, in relative terms, astronomical. If you request an itemized bill from your hospital be prepared for many pages of stuff you had no idea you were being charged for, much of it unrecognizable. Another result of our incredibly complex medical billing is, in relative terms, an astronomical number of billing mistakes. Still another result is the ready opportunity for fraudulent billing. Relatively speaking, the amount of fraudulent billing in the U.S. is astronomical.

    Once you're in a nursing home you become a major profit center. The nursing home, that coincidentally also owns the pharmacy from which your many prescriptions issue, wants to keep you alive forever. If your only state is a vegetative one, that's good enough for them. If you cause trouble, they are happy to sell you some more pills that will put you into a vegetative state. If you have insurance for this sort of thing, your insurance company wants you to die as soon as possible. The government, on the other hand, forbids you to choose when and how you die. Your physician is indifferent so long as he gets paid for poking his head into your room every now and then.

    When you consider the truth of U.S. health care, claims that it is the best in the world are laughable. But one thing everyone can agree on, it is the most expensive by far.
     
  6. You can rip off software and entertainment too for far less than the legal price. In fact, such IP theft is rampant in most third world countries. Ripping off dru gpatents is no different. It's just dressed up by some fake concern for sick people.
     
  7. How often do these patents benefit the researchers and developers of these drugs? How often do copyright laws actually benefit the artists or musicians? Claiming that obtaining drugs, movies, etc at a lower price in a different country is theft is pretty shallow considering that the product was already stolen from the producer by the studio or corporation or whatever.