Zombie patents and their toll on the healthcare system
Patents generally have a fixed lifetime, but some can linger on like zombies, thanks to clever lawyering that extends their life unnaturally.
Zombies’ cost to the healthcare system can be significant. Genentech’s Cabilly patent, for instance, should have expired in 2006, but instead stands to cost buyers of antibody drugs $1 billion or more over the next decade. We have the skinny over at VentureBeat Life Sciences.
Next Story: Trion chief thinks Activision Blizzard is trying to scare off WoW rivals
Previous Story: Decloaking 5AM’s stealthy ImmunoNewco — more details
About the Author, David P. Hamilton
David Hamilton has been writing for VentureBeat LifeScience since April 2007. He formerly spent 14 years as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in its San Francisco and Tokyo bureaus. Prior to that, he spent several years as a reporter at Science Magazine and as a reporter/researcher for the New Republic, both in Washington.