Los excesos que permiten los sistemas legales de patentes y que son aprovechados por los “patent trolls” reducen la innovación farmacológica. Eso es malo para la economía y para la salud pública (especialmente en países pobres). ¿Convergencia de los mayores defensores del libre mercado y los mejores expertos en ayuda humanitaria?. Lo explican en el Time Global Health Blog, Is the Patent System Broken? (vía Globalisation Institue Blog).
You know something extraordinary is going on when The Wall Street Journal and Doctors Without Borders agree on anything. But lately, both the fervent champion of free markets and the equally impassioned humanitarian organization have come out blazing against the current patent system. Patents, of course, were designed to spur technological innovation by giving a temporary monopoly to a new product or idea. The WSJ’s editors recently lambasted “patent trolls,” who they say exist mostly to make other people’s lives miserable by demanding payment for an idea they had never meant to develop (the Blackberry and eBay cases). Doctors Without Borders is just as strongly advocating the easing of patent restrictions, arguing they don’t encourage true innovation—particularly with respect to the health needs of the developing world—but rather reward the development of yet more “me too” drugs. The Blackberry issue is settled. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon be weighing in on the eBay matter. But there’s another question looming in the background: is the pharmaceutical industry losing its edge? Earlier this year, the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development issued its Outlook report (.pdf) for 2006. One of the most telling graphs shows the costs of research and development rising rapidly over the past quarter century while the number of “new chemical entities” has steadily fallen. That’s not the sort of things that’s supposed to happen with a functioning patent system.
