In follow-up to today’s message on drug patent monopolies:
By Susan Jaffe
The Plain Dealer
September 29, 2004
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich proposed a new federal law Wednesday that would allow the government to take over private drug research and eliminate drug companies’ monopoly on high-priced, brand-name drugs.
His “Free Market Drug Act” would create a federal Institute for Biomedical Research and Development within the National Institutes of Health that would oversee pharmaceutical research by government labs, and universities and private companies working under government contracts.
Their research would be public, and the formulas they develop for new drugs would be available to any manufacturer approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make them.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/109645024237250.xml
Comment:
One of the four proposals described in Dean Baker’s report is the Kucinich proposal.
http://www.cepr.net/publications/patents_what_are_the_issues.htm