Expiry of drug patent
Name(s):
Loss of pharmaceutical monopoly
Nature
Drug companies depend on the sale of their patented drugs to recoup their large research costs. Only 1 in 35,000 new compounds becomes a commercial success, so much research goes into a new product. When a drug patent expires, the company sales drop in the wake of competition with other companies that now may make the same drug. The prospect of an important patent expiring encourages mergers with other pharmaceutical companies.
Broader
Type
(G) Very specific problems