Pharmaceutical Patent Profits Facilitate Innovation
Roy Bodem
Without the potential for patent profits, there would be no reward for innovative ideas that lead to beneficial products. These products are the technological advances that make life better. Pharmaceutical companies have the ability to develop new drugs that can prolong life and provide cures to diseases that affect people worldwide. Patents are especially important to these drug companies because they can guarantee profit and make all the time and cost put into developing their new drug worthwhile. A patent is an economic catalyst to these pharmaceutical companies who push to research new and beneficial drugs on the premise that they will be able to reap rewards by way of profits.
Profits for patented pharmaceutical represent a reward that pharmaceutical companies earn through years of research and development and only then will they be able to profit from their work. The patent system allows drug companies to profit from patents by prohibiting any other company from marketing and selling an identical prescription drug. This system seems to be the best way to provide drug companies with the reward of potential profit for the research and development spending that in necessary to develop new and innovative prescription drugs.
What is a patent?
A patent is a property right to a product and in the case of pharmaceutical companies is usually in the form of a chemical formula that may not be duplicated by any rival company. The life of a patent is 20 years from the time the patent is issued. (Lehman, 2003) This gives the company ample time to profit from its invention. An invention is “any new or useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter.” (Lehman, 2003) This means that the inventor has the guarantee that that his or her product will be the only product of its exact kind on the market for 20 years.
Inventions can also be new improvements to previous inventions. New inventions are evaluated by National Patent Offices to compare new inventions with previous inventions that are similar to be sure that the invention is novel and not just an obvious replica of a previously patented invention. (Lehman, 2003)
Thomas Jefferson reviewed and granted the first patent and the patent review process has remained the same ever since. (Roth, 2005) Patents are reviewed by searching through previously granted patents to make sure that the patent is new and unique. This patent provides the researcher with the incentive to spend the costs, time, and effort to be granted a patent. (Roth, 2005) The inventor knows that his work will be rewarded with potential profits once a patent is granted because a patent ensures no competitor will be able to copy his or her idea and prevent the inventor from profiting. (Roth, 2005)
Patents must be enforced.
Patents are enforced by the National Patent Offices, World Trade Organization (WTO) and evaluated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). (Lehman, 2003) These organizations provide the patent protection to those seeking the protection by giving judicial enforcement of the intellectual property rights. (Lehman, 2003) This means that a company could sue a rival if it felt its patent was being violated and have official documents at the National Patent Offices to substantiate its claim to a product.
Patents are available for a variety of products including prescription drugs. Patents in the pharmaceutical industry are somewhat different and possibly more important than in other industries because of the laboratory research and clinical trials that must be done beforehand. This research costs the pharmaceutical company and is usually accomplished through capital investment on the basis that the result will lead to profit for the company. (Lehman, 2003)
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