Patent Rights & You

   Perhaps you have never invented or created anything in your life and believe that patent rights have nothing to do with you.  I have found that belief can be very wrong.  Our government created and enforces patent rights.  The foundation of those rights is the belief that if someone has the creativity and perseverance to create a new product or system to benefit the lives of others that they have the sole right to financially benefit from their creation.  That seems fair.  This right is bestowed on both people and corporations.  Patent rights are designed to benefit all and reward the creator of the idea, while improving our quality of life.

   How could you argue with that business concept?  Easy.  The laws that guide patent enforcement are easily corrupted and at a great cost to society.  I think that I am safe to say that whenever corruption can be used to create great wealth for the greedy, it will be.  Would a pharmaceutical company take an action that will ultimately take Medicare away from you, your children and take the long term income away from them?  Oh, yes they would.  Corporate decisions are more and more influenced by quarterly profit reports, rather than long term benefits to the corporation or the society it serves. 

   My favorite example of this abuse to society is being done to you and me by a group of pharmaceutical companies, but the abuse is available to all companies.  Watch for it in your cost of living.  My cost of living is primarily paid by Medicare to AbbVie Corporation (CEO, Richard Gonzales).  You see, I have CLL (Chronic Lymphocyte Leukemia).   The disease would have killed me in 2019 without the AbbVie supplied drug, Imbruvica (ibrutinib).

   A quick history of the pharmaceutical scam would be: Celera Pharmaceuticals developed and patented ibrutinib.  During the FDA approval process, Pharmacyclics, a pharmaceutical company probably better able to manufacture and distribute the product, purchased the patent rights for three million dollars.  This figure is probably in line with the value of a lifesaving drug and the research and development required bringing it to fruition.  The next market transaction was a purchase of the patent rights by Johnson & Johnson (the baby powder folks) for nine hundred and seventy-five million dollars.  I have a hard time seeing the purpose of this transaction, other than giant profits through bilking the public for a lifesaving drug.  I would suspect that the next transaction exceeded J&J’s greatest expectations when they sold the rights to the drug to AbbVie for a whapping twenty-one billion dollars.  As you know, a million is a thousand thousands and a billion is a thousand millions.  So we are talking about a large purchase.  To give a better feel for the size of the purchase, a Japanese Corporation is currently negotiating the purchase of US Steel Corp. for $17.4 billion dollars.  So the Patent Rights enforced by our government must be of great value.  The basic purpose of any government enforced business law is to be a shield for its citizens, not a sword for the greedy.  This law is obviously being perverted.

   AbbVie is having the drug Imbruvica produced in China so there are no manufacturing jobs being created.  Medicare pays AbbVie $195.125.74 per year for my Imbruvica.  My portion of that charge in co-pay is about $3,000 per month, but I don’t have that money available, so I turned the drug down.  “If living were a thing that money can buy, then the rich would live and the poor would die …”      Then comes a phone call from a foundation offering to pay my co-pay.  I asked who funded this foundation and was told “the pharmaceutical manufacturers”.  This funding comes back to AbbVie when the drug is purchased by Medicare along with my co-pay.  This is a monstrous scam on Medicare and will end the program.

  An effective government patent protection law would protect the inventor/creator of the product, as intended.  A single purchase with protections also might be allowed if the marketing of the right allowed the purchase at a maximum of 20% over book value of the protection.  No patent rights to a third purchaser.  This is what your government would look like if it represented you.

Cheers, Old Buz        3/31/2024

“Our Planet can provide for human needs … but not for human greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi

 

Draconian Pharma

Draconian Pharma

   I live by the grace of a drug marketed by AbbVie Pharmaceuticals.  You and your children will die by their hands.  The vehicle that will be your demise is called greed.  It is the driving force behind many other drug companies as well.  Here is my and your story.  I told the story in a previous blog, Golden Goose Economics, but I employed satire to tell the tale.  Satire is a language not understood by some, so here is the threat without satire.

   In 2009 my annual blood tests showed that I had CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia) a deadly malignancy.  It remained in the “wait and see” stage until in 2019 the lymphocyte count went up to stage three.  At that time my oncologist recommended a drug called Imbruvica (the generic name is Ibrutinib) at a cost to Medicare of 195 thousand dollars/year/patient.  It required that I pay a three thousand dollar a month copay.  I don’t have three thousand dollars a month over and above my living costs.  So, I turned the offer to extend my life down.

   Soon after my turn down I received a call from a foundation ready to pay my required copay.  The young woman asked me what my annual income was, and then said that I had qualified for the assistance.  I have applied for many financial programs in my life and have never had one approved without income verification.  This fact prompted me to ask, “Who funds this foundation?”  She confirmed my suspicions by answering, “The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.”  I understood that the Pharmaceutical (AbbVie) had priced the drug so high that the bulk of the potential patients could not afford the copay.  And, they would receive their donation back from the foundation when the copay was returned.  This draconian plan was probably engineered by Richard Gonzales, CEO of AbbVie.  The CLL organization estimates that there are presently, approximately two hundred thousand Medicare patients with CLL.  With this number of clients AbbVie would recover its investment of twenty one billion dollars for the patent rights of Ibrutinib in about a year and a half.  This is an excellent return on investment and spells out the end of Medicare.  There are other pharmaceuticals joining the program.  The financial success is no secret among them.

   Who is to blame for this egregious future ending of Medicare?  Let’s start at the bottom.  I am.  I am willing to participate in this scam so that I may live longer.  Next up, my oncologist.  They do not prescribe the drug without knowledge of the preceding events.  They could try to change it with their powerful AMA lobbyists.  But, in the short run, if they like being willfully blind, the drug offers effective patient care.  Next up, the pharmaceuticals and their lobbyists, they fully understand the game.  The CEOs like Gonzales are so infected with greed (the malignant form of self-preservation) that they are willing to sacrifice the lives of their children and their children’s children.  At the top of the corruption are your elected representatives.  They are the folks that create and enforce patent rights.  You elected them to serve the people, not the soulless wealth of the nation.

   What are patent rights?  They are designed to protect the rights of the creator of a desirable product and to reward the toil of a creator.  When Celera Pharmaceutical sold Ibrutinib to Pharmacyclics for three million dollars it was probably for a fair profit and to a company capable of logistics required to produce and distribute the product.  Then Johnson & Johnson paid Pharmacyclics for its patent rights $975 million.  Are you starting to smell a foul odor?  The next transaction has AbbVie paying $21 billion for these patent rights.  A billion is a thousand millions.  Twenty-one of them is going to result in a very high price for a lifesaving drug.  Are we dealing with greed now or protecting an inventor?  The purpose of any law is a shield for those in need of protection, not a sword for the greedy.  A well written patent law would protect the creator and perhaps a distributer with the purchase at perhaps 15% over the book value of the company, but no protection to a third purchaser.  This would be fair and effective.  With the large dollar influence on those who govern us, fair and effective is rare.

Cheers, Old Buz                   December 4^th, 2023

Remember:

“One cannot fool all of the people all of the time … and that is why we have two political parties.” - Anon