Business model in healthcare and clinical research: The issue of patents in science

Abstract

Purpose/Background. This article exposes the tendencies and characteristics of a business model that the pharmaceutical industry has been imposing with the help of the development of new drugs whose degree of inventiveness is questioned. As a result, they are granted second generation patents, which is considered an abusive practice that favors the increase of the prices of these innovations in the market.
Methodology/Approach. Through the presentation of a case "The Declaration of Public Interest of the Drug Imatinib in Colombia", anti-competitive strategies and maneuvers are identified, which leave few opportunities for the States to distribute the benefits of drug inventions in an equitable manner. In the bioethical analysis of the case, the dilemma is specified as a practical one, that is, one in which moral requirements persist in tension with a private interest, in this case, between public health on the one hand, and intellectual property as an international policy, on the other.
Results/Findings. The thesis is that this is a cross-border problem symptomatic of a lack of global justice due to the supplanting of the sense of the common good that has silenced social bonds of solidarity and collaboration.
Discussion/Conclusions/Contributions. It calls for a consensus on social foundations and respect for the dignity of persons, a higher mandate of solidarity for the benefit of the common good, and the flourishing of humanity.