HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - New tumour shrinking drug will be shelved

Christine MH-UK · 01-22-2007, 01:12 PM

Taxol was not patentable because the researcher who discovered its potential usefulness against cancer hadn't filed the patent within the required time period, but it still made it to market, in part because Orphan Drug laws were used to encourage its development. Of course, the taxol case is very controversial, with some groups arguing that the US government conceded too much to the drug company that received exclusive rights to the drug for ovarian cancer. Still, since most cancers are orphan diseases (I think only the most common four are not classified as such), there is alot of scope here. I will take longer for it to come into use for breast cancer, since it would have to be developed for some other cancer first.

There is also nothing to stop a company from tweaking the compound to get rid of some of the side effects/increase its efficiency and patent the tweaked compound.

So, I wouldn't worry. If I can think of these things, I am sure that the drugs industry can think of them as well.

01-22-2007, 01:12 PM	#4
Christine MH-UK Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 414	Taxol example, too Taxol was not patentable because the researcher who discovered its potential usefulness against cancer hadn't filed the patent within the required time period, but it still made it to market, in part because Orphan Drug laws were used to encourage its development. Of course, the taxol case is very controversial, with some groups arguing that the US government conceded too much to the drug company that received exclusive rights to the drug for ovarian cancer. Still, since most cancers are orphan diseases (I think only the most common four are not classified as such), there is alot of scope here. I will take longer for it to come into use for breast cancer, since it would have to be developed for some other cancer first. There is also nothing to stop a company from tweaking the compound to get rid of some of the side effects/increase its efficiency and patent the tweaked compound. So, I wouldn't worry. If I can think of these things, I am sure that the drugs industry can think of them as well.