The Supreme Court Has the Constitutional Power to Hike Medicine Prices to 5x Their Cost?

U.S. pharmaceuticals get a very good deal from the federal government. For every new drug they produce, they get rewarded with long-term patents that grant them exclusive rights to market and sell the product for as much as 20 years – which guarantees them billions in profits and no competitors in the marketplace. Drug companies claim that they must be allowed to profit off of products they nurtured with expensive research and development. In reality, taxpayer-funded research from academia or the National Institutes of Health account for the vast majority of vital drugs brought to market every year, and R&D is a small fraction of the overall drug company budget. What’s more, drug companies routinely use their monopoly power to jack up pharmaceutical prices, which cost far more in the U.S. than anywhere in the world.

via Where Does It Say the Supreme Court Has the Constitutional Power to Hike Medicine Prices to 5x Their Cost? | Alternet.

Monopoly power in action

90 Percent of Corn Seeds Are Coated With Bayer’s Bee-Decimating Pesticide

90 Percent of Corn Seeds Are Coated With Bayers Bee-Decimating Pesticide | Mother Jones.

Hospitals Buy Back-Door Drugs Due to Shortages

Fifty-two percent of hospital purchasing agents and pharmacists reported they’d bought drugs from so-called “gray market” vendors during the previous two years, according to a just-released survey of 549 hospitals by the Institute for Safe Medication practices, an advocacy group.

Gray-market suppliers are those that operate outside official channels, often buying drugs from uncertain sources and reselling them at a steep profit. A report issued last week by a one hospital association found their average mark-up was 650 percent.

via Half of hospitals buy back-door drugs – Health – Health care – msnbc.com.

$100,000 for New Cancer Drug

Seattle Genetics Monday said the drug will cost $4,500 per vial. In its clinical trials, the company said, patients on average received three vials per dose and between seven and nine doses per treatment.

via $100,000 price tag for new cancer drug – Health – Cancer – msnbc.com.

Drug prices to plummet in wave of expiring patents

The next 14 months will bring generic versions of seven of the worlds 20 best-selling drugs, including the top two: cholesterol fighter Lipitor and blood thinner Plavix.

via Drug prices to plummet in wave of expiring patents – Health – Health care – msnbc.com.

Would Shakespeare Have Survived US Copyright Law?

Shakespeare’s classics Romeo and Juliet, Othello, As You Like It and Measure for Measure, among others, were based on works of fiction published in the decades before Shakespeare’s career. They thus would have been illegal under current U.S. copyright law, which keeps works out of the public domain for 70 years after the death of the author, or a total of 95 years for works for hire. Copyright protection for decades after Shakespeare’s death would have had no impact on his ability to produce work and limited impact on his incentive to do so–while the inability to retell contemporary stories would have directly restricted his creativity.

FAIR Blog » Blog Archive » Would the Bard Have Survived U.S. Copyright Law?

Also reference Would the Bard Have Survived the Web?

Assignment W7 – Patents: Pros and Cons

I have uploaded a template that can be used to think about assignment W7: Assignment W7 – Patents: Pros and Cons