[HN Gopher] How a Drug Company Made $114B by Gaming the U.S. Pat...
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       How a Drug Company Made $114B by Gaming the U.S. Patent System
        
       Author : ctoth
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2023-01-28 19:13 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | W-Stool wrote:
       | This reminds me of why the US medical system will never be
       | reformed in meaningful ways: there's too much money to be made
       | with the status quo.
        
       | jokethrowaway wrote:
       | Another example of patents and regulations ruining lives.
        
       | mavelikara wrote:
       | https://archive.is/OvfTj
        
       | shoo wrote:
       | Is anyone aware of efforts to change laws or regulations that
       | have a non-negligible chance of succeeding, and could restrict
       | the opportunity for this kind of corporate misbehavior in future?
       | 
       | (we can imagine many wildly non-incremental changes, e.g. imagine
       | if the US adopted a UK style NHS! but it's not obvious how one
       | could incrementally get there from the starting point)
        
       | ctoth wrote:
       | If anyone ever wonders what true evil looks like, just read this
       | article.
        
         | 1024core wrote:
         | These articles just make me feel so angry! Charging retired
         | people $80K/year is no different than mugging them.
        
           | jfghi wrote:
           | *repeatedly
        
             | shoo wrote:
             | repeatedly being mugged is still a poor analogy that
             | understates how grim the situation is. muggers have
             | competitors who might offer the victim a better deal. in
             | this case there are no competitors. the victims return to
             | be mugged again and again, fully aware what is happening.
        
           | hgsgm wrote:
           | Eminent Domain. The US government should nationalize these
           | drugs and pay a fair price.
           | 
           | If that doesn't work, tax the rich
        
             | pksebben wrote:
             | unfortunately, it's the rich making the tax laws.
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | Which of these is least likely?
             | 
             | It's a very tough call.
        
       | llampx wrote:
       | TL;DR: AbbVie filed hundreds of patents on Humira, most after the
       | drug was already on the market, covering very specific scenarios,
       | which gave them ammo to keep the drug away from
       | generics/biosimilars for a longer period of time.
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-28 23:01 UTC)