[thechat] pure evil: Tobacco giant buys rights to lung cancer drugs

[Joe Crawford]

A bigger issue to me is that this points out a flaw in the way we 
administer biotech -- patents on some kinds of disease cures, where the 
patent holders manipulate the availability to be able to manipulate 
price -- is problematic.

The natural tension is between two things -- the ability of people who 
develop cures to reap a benefit from the work put in to developing those 
cures (and hopefully grow enough to get more) -- and the ability of the 
sick to get access to those cures.

There's a similar problem in the drug industry.

	- Joe <http://artlung.com/>