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Frederick Banting discovered insulin in 1923, he refused to put his name on the patent. He felt it was unethical for a doctor to profit from a discovery that would save lives. The patent was sold to University of Toronto for $1. They wanted their medication to remain affordable.
It is now 97 years after the original insulin patent was sold, and there currently no true generic Insulin products on the market.
Insulin currently has over 74 patents, each one renewing every 10 years. Pharma companies have made slow, incremental improvements to their formulas and delivery systems, which allow them to keep their formulations under patent for decades in a process called “Evergreening”.
This practice allows pharmaceutical companies to corner the market in artificial monopolies, created and protected by bad government policy.
It enables prices to skyrocket, causing patients to have to ration their insulin, which can lead to blindness, kidney failure, and death.
It enables prices to skyrocket, causing patients to have to ration their insulin, which can lead to blindness, kidney failure, and death.
Solutions such as price caps and increased regulation do not address the root mechanism that makes this practice possible. Many proponents of these reforms claim that we have a “free market system” for drug companies.
There is nothing free market about weaponizing government protections to create artificial monopolies.
Libertarians want to end patent abuse and dismantle the system that makes these abuses possible.
Libertarians want to end patent abuse and dismantle the system that makes these abuses possible.
