Reforming Drug Patents

This editorial on "Patent Medicine" from the journal Nature describes some recently passed reforms to drug patent regulations in the US. The author believes that these reforms will better protect legitimate drug-makers and obstruct the questionable practice of "filing broad patents, then suing those who use similar technologies" — a practice which seems to block the advance of drug research.

This might be an interesting research topic for Unit 3. This is a timely and complex controversy: How should drug research be funded and regulated?