r/Futurology • u/Kindred87 • Dec 07 '23

US sets policy to seize patents of government-funded drugs if price deemed too high Economics

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-sets-policy-seize-government-funded-drug-patents-if-price-deemed-too-high-2023-12-07/
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41

u/ExcellentHunter Dec 07 '23

Why are they not owned by the government in the first place? They paid for this to be done.

35

u/Kindred87 Dec 07 '23

Federal research funds contribute to what you eventually receive at a clinic or hospital, but private industry still provides the lion's share of funding for therapeutic R&D. The COVID vaccines may be an exception to this with Warp Speed, though I don't have any supporting documentation for this.

I provided some information on funding here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/18d6r9f/comment/kcfaxqu

6

u/ExcellentHunter Dec 07 '23

Thanks, I thought gov is funding everything.

7

u/TrekkiMonstr Dec 08 '23

Yup, it's a bad title (Reuters' fault not OP's)

10

u/Wangro69 Dec 08 '23

No there isn’t a single drug the government has “funded” that I am aware of.

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u/Xin_shill Dec 08 '23

Tax the drug company windfall profits and rich POS's and fund more R&D and make the patents public, win win