Pharmaceutical innovation saves lives. But not every “new” drug is truly new. Patents are designed to reward breakthrough inventions by granting the inventors temporary monopoly rights to recoup the costs…
Tag: Drug patents
When developing countries band together, lifesaving drugs become cheaper and easier to buy − with trade-offs
Procuring lifesaving drugs is a daunting challenge in many low- and middle-income countries. Essential treatments are often neither available nor affordable in these nations, even decades after the drugs entered…
Asthma meds have become shockingly unaffordable − but relief may be on the way
The price of asthma medication has soared in the U.S. over the past decade and a half. The jump – in some cases from around a little over US$10 to…
Blame capitalism? Why hundreds of decades-old yet vital drugs are nearly impossible to find
Past public ire over high drug prices has recently taken a back seat to a more insidious problem – no drugs at any price. Patients and their providers increasingly face…