Letters

摘要

James Love's proposal to replace patent protection for new drugs with prize money (10 November 2007, p 24) seems to have a fatal flaw. What happens when an innovative drug to tackle a specified illness enters a market -and takes the prize money such a breakthrough commands - but then, some years later, the drug proves lacking in some respect? Awarding the prize to the first on the scene would remove the incentive to seek variations, such as the "me too" drugs that sometimes prove superior to the drugs that inspired them.