By Simone Kothari
Every childhood memory has a segment of it attached to the board game of Monopoly. A scaled-down version of the business world that surrounds us. It was quite simple: roll a dice, move your counter on a property, pay the price, and own it. While the other players are left paying the extortionate rents on mere visits. Not to mention, the construction of hotels, you remember, right? Constructing an infrastructure increased the rents that were to be paid by the other players. Yeah, monopoly was undoubtedly sublime. However, scaling it up, we see the reflection of it in real life. For we are the live players of life’s monopoly, our choices are the dice, the products, are the properties, the adverse stakeholders are rent payers, and the systems that we have created are the hotels. One such system is the - Patent System. The article that follows is an overview of the double-edged sword that the patent system has been, specifically in the pharmaceutical industry.
What is the patent system?
The patent is a privilege that the parent of an invention and/or process is allowed to exercise. In essence, a company with a unique idea of a product and or process, attempts to file a patent on it. The patent is granted only after the company fulfills the following requirements:
The uniqueness of the product (It should be non-existing in the public domain)
The industrial applicability of the product
The product’s advancement with respect to the prior knowledge of its field
On complying with the aforementioned criteria a patent is granted, typically for 20 years. Post the execution, the invention is protected from being commercially used, distributed, marketed, imported or re-created.
Such a system comes with sets of advantages and disadvantages, however, as individuals thrive behind power, they inherit greed. Exploiting the privilege for their personal agendas. Let's break down the game of monopoly and understand how the patent system has affected society in the medical field through an example.
Coming from Indian families, we consider Dolo 650 to be the knight in shining armor for the slightest unusual in our body. Be it the lightest rise in the body temperature, or headaches. Dolo marks the onset of decisions based on healthcare. Imagine Dolo's price increasing. Hurtful, isn’t it? The rise in the price of basic medicines such as Dolo 650 will make consoling health uneasiness expensive. And gradually it will eventuate to be a matter beyond the notes in our pockets. The prescribed contemplation may seem unrealistic, but it is a flashing reality in the medical system that breathes inside the body of the patent system. For instance, medications like Sofosbuvir, Ledipasvir, and Velpatasvir for Hepatitis C, a disease that may cause long term liver damage, have been patented by companies.
As humans, the urge to “want more” is inevitable. And this same greed has turned us into a monstrous breed, where money - it blinds us! Our lives have become a board game of Monopoly, speculating on it to achieve an idea of prosperity that has become ever so brutal.
By Simone Kothari
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