Drug firms 'block cheap medicine'

[formercia]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7754048.stm

Drug firms 'block cheap medicine'


Drug companies are blocking or delaying the entry of cheaper generic medicines into the EU, pushing up medicine bills, the European Commission has said.

Their actions cost EU healthcare providers 3bn euros ($3.9bn; £2.5bn) in savings between 2000 and 2007, it said.

--snip--

The Commission said that innovators filed multiple applications to stop generic drugs getting to market - in one case, there were 1,300 patents for a single drug.

--snip--


I wonder how many of these drugs were developed with public funds.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. " ... drugs ... developed with public funds"

MOST of them -- in the EEC and in the USA.

--p!