[Gllug] seti

[Nix]

On Thu, 2 Jan 2003, Adam Bower moaned:
> Just a warning but some of the distributed drug/cancer finding software is
> being run by private companies who will be taking out patents on their research
> so that they can sell the results. You may therefore unwittingly be helping out
> people who will make money from this and you will get nothing, and then if you
> get cancer in the future be having to pay for the drugs you helped researched
> (or even discovered) for you treatment. 

Do you have any idea how expensive the drug creation / clinical trial
process is, and what percentage of candidate drugs make it?

This is one place where the patent system, while unpleasant, is arguably
*necessary*. Drug creation is *so* expensive that even *with* patent rights
big pharma companies can be driven to the edge of bankruptcy fairly easily.

-- 
`I was thinking of the legendary British Weather, with the four seasons
 of winter, mud, rain, and damp.' --- Peter da Silva

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