Why Are Drug Patents Important?

Medical research contributes to new discoveries and ideas, including new medications. The pharmaceutical field is forever improving and growing because of medical research that strives to develop pharmaceutical breakthroughs. Those ideas and breakthroughs must be protected through drug patents.

Function

• By protecting medical research and pharmaceutical breakthroughs, the inventors of these ideas gain protection from idea theft while they develop their products and in the years after their release. A patent helps a company to recover the fiscal investment of producing a new medicine. Without the chance to make a profit, drug companies cannot afford to produce new medications.

Significance

• Medical research is largely responsible for forming new medical discoveries as well as creating new medications and antibiotics. This research can also result in medical breakthroughs.

Features

• "Today, creating a single new medication costs, on average, about one billion dollars," says Miles White, CEO of Abbot Laboratories. This monumental funding comes only from private investors. Without a guarantee of a return on their investment, that financing will go somewhere else.

Identification

• Drug patents are simple in to other patents. For example, it is just as easy to patent a new drug as it is to patent a new invention. Pharmaceutical patents normally last 11.7 years, which covers the process between market entry and patent expiration.

The Facts

• The intention of a drug patent is to protect the investments of medical researchers as they create and disperse new medications.