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[Marcus Low, Business Day, Link] It is often argued that weakening patent monopolies on pharmaceuticals will lead to fewer new medicines being discovered. Whether this is indeed the case, and to what extent, is one of the key questions that must be addressed by a UN high-level panel convened to consider the “policy incoherence between the justifiable rights of inventors, global human rights law, trade rules and public health”.
One of the difficulties faced by the panel, and by any policy maker, is the lack of transparency in relation to drug development. Firms generally disclose little detail about what they spend on research and development (R&D) for new medicines.
