>Nexium illustrates the drug makers’ strategy. Many chemicals come in two versions, each a mirror image of the other: an L-isomer and an R-isomer. (The “L” is for left, the “R” is for right.) Nexium’s predecessor Prilosec is a mixture of both isomers. When Prilosec’s patent expired in 2001, the drug maker was ready with Nexium, which contains only the L-isomer.
And yet, prilosec is an OTC medication which anyone can buy for about 10 dollars, so who gives a shit. So what if a reformulation leads to a new patented product if the old formulation becomes a generic and is readily available? Also, reformulating to reduce dosage requirements to improve adherence is a legitimate product improvement so I don't see why it's problematic at all to seek another patent.
>An internal National Institutes of Health (NIH) document, obtained by Public Citizen through the Freedom of Information Act, shows how crucial taxpayer-funded research is to top-selling drugs. According to the NIH, taxpayer-funded scientists conducted 55 percent of the research projects that led to the discovery and development of the top five selling drugs in 1995. (See Section III)
Yup. I'm a huge proponent of basic research and I think we can do more of it. But saying basic research "leads to" drugs is also misleading. Basic research typically only establishes that a compound has basic efficacy in a cell model or an animal model. There's a lot more work that needs to be done to validate that the compound works in a human.
> American citizens alone bear the cost of R&D for the world because every other country sets price ceilings?
Yes, pretty much. We subsidize drug development for much of the world.
> Also, I'll just once again point out that our drug development industry is not struggling! It's doing great right now, they spend lots of money on dividends and stock buybacks and advertising and still make fantastic profits. They're fine.
The whole stock market is doing great right now. By this logic everyone should drop the price on all goods because their stock prices are going up.