Word: patently
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...change could rock the $100 billion pharmaceutical industry. In the past, the drug companies decided when to ask to make a switch, a situation that critics say merely reinforced their patent protection and high prices. Now the FDA is considering making more decisions on its own, and the consequences could be enormous, affecting who pays for these drugs and how much, just as these issues are becoming politically explosive. The move could shift some costs that insurers now pay for drugs to consumers--although at least there would be no forms to fill...
Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb say they are pushing for OTC status for their products to make them more widely and cheaply available. But analysts note that Merck's patent on Mevacor expires next year. And while Bristol-Myers Squibb's patent on Pravachol runs to 2005, generic versions of Mevacor will surely cut into Pravachol's sales, justifying Bristol-Myers' push for OTC too. An added benefit: a switch could give the maker exclusive selling rights on the drug for three more years. That's why medicines like the hair-loss treatment Rogaine (owned by Pharmacia Corp...
...controversy over A2M continues to smolder. Roses, now worldwide director of genetics at Glaxo Wellcome, says he and his colleagues looked at that gene. "I even filed a patent on it," he says with a grin. But he's now convinced that it's not the right gene. Tanzi, however, refuses to acknowledge defeat. "There's a ton of biology that suggests it's a good candidate," he says. Among other things, A2M appears to mediate the rate at which neurons produce beta amyloid...
Even Japan's legal system is tilted against the inventor. Although Japanese patent law requires firms to compensate employees for ideas that pay off, it doesn't specify how much. "There's nothing to stop a company from giving a researcher only a few hundred dollars for a major invention," says Yoshikazu Takaishi, a computer and telecommunications attorney in Tokyo. Furthermore, while U.S. law operates under the "first-invention rule"--awarding the patent to whoever comes up with the idea, regardless of when that person files an application--Japan uses the "first-application rule." So if an inventor's firm...
...spend $339 billion over 10 years on Medicare --To add prescription-drug benefit to Medicare --To cut class sizes in schools --To recruit 1 million new teachers --To end drug-company patent extensions --To fight for "every woman in the land" in health-care-reform plan --To increase teachers' salaries...