"Tim Tyler"  wrote in message
>
> Regarding some recent comments about how patents were
> encouraging medicine to develop and test artificial,
> patentable compounds while ignoring the natural and
> safer - but unpatentable - equivalents
>
Natural isn't safe. Many plants go to great lengths to protect themselves
from being eaten by developing poisons.
>
> IMO, this medical mess isn't a failure of commerce - it's a
> problem with patent law - which works /against/ free-commerce
> by granting government-enforced monopolies.
>
There is no ideal solution. For instance if you have an anti-AIDS drug that
cost a lot to develop but not much to manufacture, and lots of poor HIV
positive people in Africa, should you be forced to sell it to them at
manufacturing cost? If so, who picks up the tab for development?
>
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