[larrys]

Agree with your comments, however:

"But at the same time drug companies spend most of their money on marketing not research."

I'm not sure it matters the breakdown of how much they spend on marketing vs. research. The do spend plenty of money on research there is no doubt about that, right? Even if they spend 3x on marketing (arbitrary) that doesn't take away from what they do spend on research.

"Patents are effectively extended by slightly changing a molecule (sometimes making the drug less effective) and getting a patent extension"

I think you mean a new patent not an extension? I'm thinking of nexium vs. prilosec as an example of this.

See:

http://faculty.msb.edu/homak/homahelpsite/webhelp/Pharma_Pri...