From: Sasha Chislenko (sasha1@netcom.com)
Date: Mon Feb 14 2000 - 21:56:31 MST
At 10:05 AM 00/02/14, Ross A. Finlayson wrote:
> At least by that time
>contemporary drug patents would be expired so that the government could be
>mandated to purchase "generic" drugs in the majority of necessary cases.
I can suggest an alternative solution:
As each drug patent expires, the government declares the drug illegal,
and collects taxes for additional jail space for the violators.
Thus the government not only avoids obligatory purchases of generic
drugs, but gains in both money and power; medical companies are
assured of selling even insignificantly better (or even less
efficient and more risky) drugs at the margins allowed by
exclusive patents. As the people who would be incarcerated
for these crimes should usually be the types who value their
own benefits over social discipline, they represent natural
enemies to established coercive powers of all sorts, and
probably engage in other risky and socially challenging behaviors,
so their isolation won't be too commonly regretted (also taking
into account that the yet unincarcerated population will be
getting increasingly conservative)
You think it's cynical humor?
Well, ok, maybe - creative exaggeration.
But wait until multi-billion dollar benefits actually start pointing
in that direction for government, FDA, and medical cartels.
In some cases, the regulators may justly discover that the benefits
were, under the pressure of not financial interests and not
necessarily good research) unfairly valued over risks at the time
when the drug was patented.
At other times, it may be hard to tell the difference...
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Disclaimer:
Suggestions expressed in my messages do not always express my opinions
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