patrick.net

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/does-the-chinese-government-prohibit-the-nyt-from-talking-about-drug-patents

It focuses on one scientist's struggles to perfect a new treatment for diabetes, a process that is likely to take well over twenty years, even in a best case scenario. One of the issues that contributed to this delay is the fact that a single scientist held the patent on the original innovation, which meant that no other scientists could contribute to the development process. By contrast, if the research had been funded up front and the government had not granted a patent monopoly, anyone would have been able to offer their expertise to help develop a usable treatment.  This...