New antiviral treatment made from sugar

Post by clort » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:32 PM UTC

fangorn wrote: post #15

Sure, but: "Florey had not patented penicillin, having been advised [...] that doing so would be unethical"[0]. Anyone else immediately thought: "OK, but they patented it, and the spin off company will presumably licence the tech for exorbitant sums, should it ever reach that phase of course, so it'll just be another expensive 1st world thing. No money? Bite the dust."? And yeah, I know, patents encourage inventions…

Post by rrtthu » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:44 PM UTC

clort wrote: post #22

fangorn wrote: post #15

Sure, but: "Florey had not patented penicillin, having been advised [...] that doing so would be unethical"[0]. Anyone else immediately thought: "OK, but they patented it, and the spin off company will presumably licence the tech for exorbitant sums, should it ever reach that phase of course, so it'll just be another expensive 1st world thing. No money? Bite the dust."? And yeah, I know, patents encourage inventions…

Pretty sure that government could just buy a patent like this at a price that they choose. Some countries might choose to do that, some might not. Also, patents expire after only 21 years. They have patented this molecule now, but they haven't actually got a treatment as yet, meaning that the clock is ticking. I don't know if you can copyright a molecule?

Post by fsh » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

Post by Erlich_Bachman » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 3:12 PM UTC

elcomet wrote: post #25

maze-le wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that there will be reverse engineered generics with another name tag for 1/100th of the original price.

You can't sell the same molecule if they have a patent. It's not about reverse engineering.

Post by jcranmer » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 3:18 PM UTC

clort wrote: post #22

fangorn wrote: post #15

Sure, but: "Florey had not patented penicillin, having been advised [...] that doing so would be unethical"[0]. Anyone else immediately thought: "OK, but they patented it, and the spin off company will presumably licence the tech for exorbitant sums, should it ever reach that phase of course, so it'll just be another expensive 1st world thing. No money? Bite the dust."? And yeah, I know, patents encourage inventions…

Pretty sure that government could just buy a patent like this at a price that they choose. Some countries might choose to do that, some might not. Also, patents expire after only 21 years. They have patented this molecule now, but they haven't actually got a treatment as yet, meaning that the clock is ticking. I don't know if you can copyright a molecule?