Logo

But What Do They Cost Outside of Medicine?

Dec 29, 2006

A Christmas day post on Slashdot has sparked a lively debate with comments growing ever longer and more boisterous. At issue: an editorial from Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz, an economist who rails against the concept of drug patents in the British Medical Journal. The anonymous author of the post claims that "in medicine, patents cost lives."

And from the silver lining department: just look at all those lives being saved by the dismal success rate most pharmas are seeing in getting drugs to market.

 

Breaking News
The Scan

Billions for Antivirals

The US is putting $3.2 billion toward a program to develop antivirals to treat COVID-19 in its early stages, the Wall Street Journal reports.

NFT of the Web

Tim Berners-Lee, who developed the World Wide Web, is auctioning its original source code as a non-fungible token, Reuters reports.

23andMe on the Nasdaq

23andMe's shares rose more than 20 percent following its merger with a special purpose acquisition company, as GenomeWeb has reported.

Science Papers Present GWAS of Brain Structure, System for Controlled Gene Transfer

In Science this week: genome-wide association study ties variants to white matter stricture in the brain, and more.