It could be said that the goal of the industry is commercially to help alleviate the mental and physical issues of people and animals. There are also those who say that these aims may be in conflict with profit making and who argue that drugs should be available at low cost to all who need them. Although perhaps desirable in an ideal world, another perspective is that this would remove the incentive to keep on inventing drugs, especially with the expensive research and other costs that are involved. And for a number of reasons, many pharmaceutical companies today are already struggling.
The length of time that patent protection provides to an innovative company so that it can exclude others from entering a market has been much discussed. It has been suggested that 20 years of patent life, even if protection is extended by up to five years through Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs), is too short in comparison with the amount of time, effort and money that pharma companies invest in drug development, and that patent terms should, in fact, be extended further.
Clearly, coming off patent means that drugs are usually cheaper and more widely available – good for society in the main – but the effects on pharma companies can be dramatic, and not just on the companies themselves but also the whole economy, with corresponding longer term effects on society as a whole.
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