re: #213 SixDegrees

Drug patents were originally no different from any other patent - 20 years protection from time of approval. Problems arose in recent years, because you want to lock down your patent rights as quickly as possible to prevent rivals from benefiting - but the FDA approval process and other procedural delays in bringing your product to market can burn through an enormous chunk of that period of protection, during which you can make no profit at all off your protected asset. So drug patents were extended to take this reality into account. Not sure what the extensions amount to, but they aren’t significantly longer than the 20 years granted to other inventions.

But it is not unusual to grant multiple extensions. I have no problem at all with the R&D company7 recouping it’s investment & realising a good profit.
My problem is when their patent goes on & on & they set an uneasonable price