Profits drugs

Di L, Kerns EH. Profiting drug-hke properties in drug discovery. Curr Opin Chem Biol 2003 7 402-8. 

Prozac, produced by the pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly and Company, was first approved for the treatment of depression in Belgium in 1986. A year later, in 1987, it was approved for use in the United States. It is now approved for use in over 90 countries and used by more than 40 million people worldwide. Needless to say it is a very profitable drug. 

In the first Opium War, Britain forces China to continue to allow British companies to sell the highly profitable drug to millions of addicts in Asia. In addition to the British legal monopoly, there soon develops a flourishing illegal trade controlled by powerful criminal groups. 

From a humanitarian perspective, a market-driven approach to drug development often leaves unaddressed the diseases of less-developed nations. Nations with a low per capita income are less able to contribute to an economically profitable drug. Some scientists have attempted to address this situation. For example, Dennis Liotta of Emory University spearheaded the creation of iThemba Pharmaceuticals in 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa. iThemba specifically targets novel treatments for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, three exceptionally common diseases in Africa.3... 

Resources of the company could be applied to developing more profitable drugs. 

The value of a profit-sharing plan to employees depends upon sustained corporate earnings. In turn, these profits require distant patent expirations of profitable drugs and a wide, full pipeline of medicines flowing rapidly to the marketplace. 

The drug war is over, and we [the United States] lost We merely repeated the mistake of Prohibition. The harder we tried to stamp out this evil, the more lucrative we made it, and the more it spread. An evil cannot be eradicated by making it more profitable Drug laws have also... 

The motivation of these organizations is not solely profit-orientated in most cases, as they usually accept social responsibilities for the patients they serve with their more profitable drugs (see above). In addition to the small amount of profit they may make on orphan drugs, there is an enhancement of the company s image. 

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