this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
348 points (99.4% liked)

politics

19144 readers
2206 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

The Biden administration is putting pharmaceutical companies on notice, warning them that if the price of certain drugs is too high, the government might cancel their patent protection and allow rivals to make their own versions.

Under a plan announced Thursday, the government would consider overriding the patent for high-priced drugs that have been developed with the help of taxpayer money and letting competitors make them in hopes of driving down the cost.

In a 15-second video released to YouTube on Wednesday night, President Joe Biden promised the move would lower prices.

“Today, we’re taking a very important step toward ending price gouging so you don’t have to pay more for the medicine you need,” he said.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TheUncannyObserver@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If it’s developed with taxpayer dollars, it should not be patented by a corporation. I don’t care what it is we’re talking about. Taxpayer money is supposed to go to improving the lives of Americans, not enriching corporations.

[–] orbitz@lemmy.ca 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The only argument I can see is maybe if the grant (whatever it is called) only covers for partial, so like if the government adds in $10k, then that shouldn't be the same as them funding the whole thing (this number is not exact I got no idea on true amounts). So some leeway but they shouldn't get a full patent if taxpayers money is used on it for sure.

Though then you'll get some creative accounting to show the government spent less percentage than thought and all that so it sucks but something needs to make sure taxpayers get what they paid for.

[–] Chickenstalker@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Almost ALL drug research is based on what is called fundamental research, which is basic research that at first glance does not seem to lead to any practical application. E.g., one group might discover an unusual protein side chain, another group then found that this side chain is inhibited by a certain molecule and another traced the metabolic pathway. These are usually done by postgrad students at universities all around the world and funded by their own governments via research grants. Almost always, these grants are paid by the country's tax payers.

Here's the kicker. To get noticed and to get promotions, these researchers have to PAY publishing companies to publish their findings in journals, after which the publisher owns the copyright to it and put up an obscene paywall.

Then, pharmaceutical companies skim these publications, usually combining the findings of 100s of articles as their starting point to develop new drugs. E.g. that protein side chain mentioned earlier turned out to be a target for anticancer drugs. Without these basic findings, big pharma don't even know where to start. Essentially, governments and tax payers around the world subsidize the basic research of big pharma only for these companies to charge obscene prices and region lock the drugs.