Pfizer loses nearly a BILLION dollars on drug R&D

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

No, every company knows how the current drugs work. They'll get their asses sued though if anybody tries to make and sell the drug before the patent is out. Likewise, everyone knows when the patents are supposed to run out, because the generic companies are like drooling dogs, waiting to start their own forms.

I was referring to hsmith's suggestion that the patent system could be avoided with NDA's.

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

You mean when a company develops a drug and sells it, they make each patient sign an NDA so the generic companies can never figure out what's in the pill and duplicate it? If so, that would never work in reality. Who is the drug company going to sue when Grandma lets her pills into the hands of some big generic manufacturer? Her? She has no money. And you can't make it a crime to put various ingredients together in a pill.



Why? Brand recognition?

Yeah ok. I guess they couldn't go after the company that stole the formula

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by hsmith

Yeah ok. I guess they couldn't go after the company that stole the formula

Are you just talking or do you actually have examples of this happening?

How can a company be sued for violating an NDA that they were never a part of? It's not a crime or a tort to buy something from someone if that violates a contract you were never a part of. You can't sue someone for breach of contract when there was no contract they agreed to.

If someone signs an NDA, and then discloses the info to me, and then I use that info, I'm not at fault. The only person the company could go after is the person who violated the NDA.

Maybe you'd have a chance if I orchestrated the whole thing so that someone could fraudulently agree to the NDA and hand over the info to me. But that's not likely to happen. With the availability of info on the internet, do you really think a generic company would have to employ spies and fraudulently agree to NDA to figure out sildenafil citrate is what makes Viagra?

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

Not really; a 'generic drug maker' is someone who profits solely on the research other companies are doing, maximizing on the fact that the patents are up and the technology is a free for all.

Pfizer and Merck are research companies, and do initial research on drugs. That alone makes them not a 'generic drug maker'. I'm assuming you mean they are also maximizing on ended patents and continuing to make drugs even after patents run out, like Bayer aspirin. They'd be stupid not to, but that doesn't mean they are considered generic drug makers.

Just for clarification.

They do their own research and when patents run out on other companies drugs in many cases they make their own version...once the patent is over they can legally make it. They are primarily research companies I agree but they also benefit from the research of others when patents expire.