The pharmaceutical industry could not exist in its present form were it not for two major deviations from the ideal "free" market, first, the exclusine monoply rights granted by patents; and second, the ability to practice price discrimination of drug resale (rules that officially prohibit cheaper Canadian drugs from being re-inported back to the states.)

"The pharmaceutical industry earns nearly two-thirds of its profits in the United States since drug prices in the rest of the industrialized world are largely government controlled. Those profits rely almost entirely on laws that protect the industry from cheap imports, delay home-grown kickoffs, give away government medicall discoveries, allow steep tax breaks for research expenditures and forbid government officials from demanding discounts while requiring them to buy certain drugs."
Gardiner Harris in the New York Times"

"You just don't get it ... We've got more money than God!" Phillip Morris Executive

"If we put horse manure in a capsule, we could sell it to 95% of these doctors." "Pills are to sell, not to take." Harry Loynd, President of Parke Davis, 1951-1967

In the early 1950's when Dr. Jonas Salk invented the polio vaccine, he was asked why he had not tried to patent this lifesaving discovery, which surely could have made an immense fortune. Salk appeared startled at the question and replied, "How can you patent the sun?" His answer precisely captured one mindset about these matters -- First, that a responsible medical scientist would not seek to make personal profit off a discovery; and second, that there were some areas of medicine and of nature that were simply off limits for patents and private ownership.

I beleive genetics should have that same mindset. All of the above came from a book I am reading by Howard Brody, Director for Medical Humanities at Texas University called "Ethics, the Medical Profession, and the Pharmaceutical Industry -- Hooked All of you should get this book. It's very interesting and enlightening. You can order it online at www.rowmanlittlefield.com

Vicky