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Abolishing patents is likely to substantially hinder innovation. Maybe if it is accompanied by reasonable changes to other processes. But without patent protect

by TimPC 3y ago

Abolishing patents is likely to substantially hinder innovation. Maybe if it is accompanied by reasonable changes to other processes. But without patent protection there is a zero reason to spend $2 billion to $3 billion to get a drug through FDA trials when a competitor can make a generic afterwards for roughly $5 million and undercut you dramatically in the market as a result. People complain about patents endlessly without offering a realistic solve for this problem and think that innovation in fields where innovation is expensive won't be hampered at all despite this clearly not being the case.

loup-vaillant 3y ago
> But without patent protection there is a zero reason to spend $2 billion to $3 billion to get a drug through FDA trials when a competitor can make a generic afterwards for roughly $5 million and undercut you dramatically in the market as a result. I see. The solution here is simple: let the private labs go bankrupt, hire their researchers in public facilities. You’ll get your innovation back. As for the costs, well, sure you need to pay those researchers, but you get most of that back in the form of much cheaper medication. I mean, why keep capitalism in the areas where it is so obviously failing? I want effective roads, schools, energy, water, hospitals, mass transportation… along with health insurance, retirement plans, unemployment insurance… and for all of those, the best way I know of is to make them public. And while we’re at it I’d like some democratically run media that aren’t owned by a bunch of ludicrously rich people, so I don’t get automatic propaganda about why making the above public doesn’t work. Because it does. I’m living in France, I’ve seen it work. > People complain about patents endlessly without offering a realistic solve for this problem I think I just did. But you have to accept that it means reducing the scope of Capitalism, if not outright ending it. If you don’t, well… explain to me how Capitalism will somehow not burn our planet to a crisp and depletes its resources. Because as far as I can tell the "only system that works" will not work for long. It cannot. Because Physics. Thus it will end, one way or another, and it’d be nice if it didn’t take the world along with it.

by TimPC 3y ago

loup-vaillant 3y ago

> But without patent protection there is a zero reason to spend $2 billion to $3 billion to get a drug through FDA trials when a competitor can make a generic afterwards for roughly $5 million and undercut you dramatically in the market as a result. I see. The solution here is simple: let the private labs go bankrupt, hire their researchers in public facilities. You’ll get your innovation back. As for the costs, well, sure you need to pay those researchers, but you get most of that back in the form of much cheaper medication. I mean, why keep capitalism in the areas where it is so obviously failing? I want effective roads, schools, energy, water, hospitals, mass transportation… along with health insurance, retirement plans, unemployment insurance… and for all of those, the best way I know of is to make them public. And while we’re at it I’d like some democratically run media that aren’t owned by a bunch of ludicrously rich people, so I don’t get automatic propaganda about why making the above public doesn’t work. Because it does. I’m living in France, I’ve seen it work. > People complain about patents endlessly without offering a realistic solve for this problem I think I just did. But you have to accept that it means reducing the scope of Capitalism, if not outright ending it. If you don’t, well… explain to me how Capitalism will somehow not burn our planet to a crisp and depletes its resources. Because as far as I can tell the "only system that works" will not work for long. It cannot. Because Physics. Thus it will end, one way or another, and it’d be nice if it didn’t take the world along with it.