| > off-patent Well there’s your problem: no one can make money off of it, unless they develop a new delivery mechanism, etc. Patents encourage developing new medicines, but not developing new knowledge about (never mind use of) old medicine. The solution (in the US) is obvious: federal funding of research that stands to help lots of people but not make lots of money. Since most of these patients (in the US) are going to be on Medicare, there could be huge potential cost savings to the taxpayer: memory care is EXPENSIVE, so even the paltry amount covered by Medicare racks up (and the opportunity costs of people paying for private memory care is enormous). But instead of increasing funding for this kind of life- AND MONEY-saving research, this administration is freezing and slashing research funding, and specifically targeting Columbia for political/Trump’s-petty-grudge reasons. |
You can patent new applications of an existing drug. This has been somewhat of a problem, as companies can just look at how drugs are being used off-label, and patent some of these uses.