“This seems to be all profit-driven for somebody, and I just think it’s a very dangerous process.” –Dr. Aberg
I believe many of you have seen the news which was all the rage in December 2016. This story is not complex, and it matches Hollywood’s narrative logic perfectly.
- An evil dragon appeared and broke the silence. There is a drug called “Daraprim” used by malaria and Aids patients, and its price doubled 55 times overnight. That was Martin Shkreli’s “masterpiece”, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals.
- The super heroes emerged blinking. A group of Sydney school students did not wanna stand idly and they decided to solve it out.
- Super heroes slaughter dragon, saved princess and the world. Boys recreated the drug’s key ingredient for only 20 dollars.
As most readers , it made my blood boil. However, I thought the thing was not that simple.
The video: Active Ingredient from $110000 Drug Recreated for $20 by High Schoolers.
The main character Daraprim, who owns the patent actually?
I searched in the WIPO patent collections and found Daraprim is an old drug. It was invented by Gertrude Elion in 1952.
WIPO – Search International and National Patent Collections
However, the patent belongs to Martin Shkeli now, who was mentioned by every media. Such as BBC and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Martin Shkreli: Australian boys recreate life-saving drug
Martin Shkreli: ‘The most hated man in America’
As you know, the patent protection duration of medicine is only 20 years. As a judge fund manager, Martin Shkreli discovered Daraprim have those characteristics: expiring patent, the exclusive specific drug for a disease, few factories have production permit. Then increasing price sharply, attracting broad attention, triggering pharmaceuticals Industry stock market crash, short selling then making exorbitant profits.
That is why the price of Daraprim increased sharply. It was totally a financial game as ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’.
Actually , more and more drug companies aimed at the expiring patent drugs, always specific drugs to some diseases. Such as Cycloserine which is an anti-TB drug and an antibiotic called Doxycycline.
Here’s what happened to AIDS drug that spiked 5,000%
Let’s do some connections to the business ethics. There are two different theories of social responsibility and ethics in business, and due to the analysis I have done, I think business ethics should be the responsibility to the whole society, the employers in your company, the environment, and yourself. By the way, Martin Shkreli was sued and imprisoned by the US Attorney’s Office.
What conclusions can we make?
1. Respecting intellectual property rights is the basis to ensure industry innovation capability.
2. Focusing on the expired patent
3. Innovating in synthetic process. It is like getting goal in roundabout way for small industries.
The Sydney boys undoubtedly deserve admiration, but the world is never that pure.