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Nobel Laureate Attacks Medical Intellectual Property

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the corporate-bottom-line-is-red dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who was fired by the World Bank blasted drug patents in an editorial in the British Medical Journal titled 'Scrooge and intellectual property rights.' 'Knowledge is like a candle, when one candle lights another it does not diminish its light.' In medicine, patents cost lives. The US patent for turmeric didn't stimulate research, and restricted access by the Indian poor who actually discovered it hundreds of years ago. 'These rights were intended to reduce access to generic medicines and they succeeded.' Billions of people, who live on $2-3 a day, could no longer afford the drugs they needed. Drug companies spend more on advertising and marketing than on research. A few scientists beat the human genome project and patented breast cancer genes; so now the cost of testing women for breast cancer is 'enormous.'"

7 of 449 comments (clear)

  1. /. TROLL ATTACKS NOBEL LAUREAT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    MOD THE TROLL DOWN!!!

  2. Third Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    See Subject.

  3. So now you know by WillRobinson · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    the rest of the story, how 1% of the worlds population owns 90% of its wealth.

    1. Re:So now you know by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      the rest of the story, how 1% of the worlds population owns 90% of its wealth.

      Of course you know that's an exaggeration, but just out of curiosity, why do you think that (small percentage) should NOT own (larger percentage) of the world's wealth? Personally, I'd rather live in that world where I can move as high as my talent can take me, than live in a world of enforced "equality" that really means transferring money from the doers to the takers.

      --
      Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
  4. Oh, great - I don't have mod points by wasted · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You go and post something intelligent, insightful, and sensible on a day I DON'T have mod points. And when I DO have mod points, we have three days of news for losers, stuff that really doesn't matter once you venture out of Mom's basement.

  5. Re:Oh, great - I don't have mod points by donaldm · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Unfortunately I don't have any mod points either, having lost them because the last three days were boring.

    --
    There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
  6. Re:eminent domain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    0: troll? Somebody doesn't have a sense of humor.

    Touchy? Touchy touchy? Ohhhh, that feels gooood :D:D:D ;-D