US adds Canada to IP watch list, due to cheaper generic pharmaceuticals

[ThigkHighSuccubi]

I hear rich people's bones makes good antibiotics maybe we should grind up a few of those to see

[Archangel125]

If these assholes claim to be capitalists, and generic drugs from Canada are hurting their bottom line, then I suppose they've got to take steps to be competitive, don't they? Like lowering their drug prices to be more in line with the costs of generic drugs.

[Peachy]

Well to be fair, being mad about something infringing on your IP isn't exactly anti capitalist... As it is your property.

These companies should still absolutely gey bent though, since the companies making dupes aren't in the US.

[Archangel125]

It isn't infringement at all, though. That's the thing. Patents expire in Canada sooner than they do in the US. The generic drugs sold in Canada are completely legal here. What they want are protectionist tarriffs on drugs sold to the States, or worse, they want Canadian drug sellers to raise our prices. Fuck 'em with a rusty morning star.

[Blackavar]

Seize the means of production. Medicine should not be held by corporations.

[Headhumpy]

You're getting into the territory of pricing here which is a whole other issue. It is linked to the issue of patent protection though: when it comes to things like medicine, market exclusivity is granted in return for disclosing your invention, but this severely distorts the market in favour of those selling the medicine so there needs to be a distortion in the other direction. The "insurers bargain with drug companies" model is hardly ideal not least because it requires everyone to be insured. Something like the UK's healthcare system where the NHS is the sole negotiator might work better although I haven't looked into this much myself.

[Firgof Umbra]

It's not a hard requirement to meet if the government 'makes everyone insured', much like the NHS yes. The actual model of pricing wasn't really what I meant to get into fully here, more 'who was in control of the pricing' and 'why would you want them to be in control of pricing'.

[JaffaOrange]

Pricing is at the heart of the problem. People target Big Pharma because they look at their gross profits and think something must be amiss. Putting patents aside, prices see a different price in each country. I'm guessing each health insurer is getting drugs at different prices as well. A big step to partially solve this is to allow the US government to negotiate prices.