Drug analysts said patented drugs often sell for 10 to 20 times the cost of making them.

Is it fair to the inventor to allow society free access to the patented drug?

American manufacturers often sell patented drugs abroad for less than they charge in this country.

If the generic and patented drug produce the same blood levels, they are considered bio-equivalent.

Over Washington's objections, poor nations won the right to make patented drugs in certain situations, especially when there is a "national emergency."

They contend the law gives the health minister too much power to allow cheaper versions of patented drugs.

In 1969, it allowed copies of patented drugs to be imported, and a generic industry began to thrive.

For decades Canada allowed any company to apply for a license to make a patented drug there.

That has left most poor countries dependent on expensive patented drugs to fight the world's deadliest diseases.

By the same token we should also be considering the price of patented drugs, and the development of public health services in developing countries.

The typical discount for patented drugs is smaller.

If they can't sell us expensive patented drugs for our entire life, what ever are they going to do?!

Those countries manufacture or import generic versions of the patented drugs used in the West to combat the virus.

This Board establishes the maximum prices that can be charged in Canada for patented drugs.

The contracts made good business sense: contract profits may have been small compared to the profits on patented drugs, but so was the risk.

Under the new law, a maker of generics can apply to copy a patented drug, but only after it has been marketed for three years.

Mylan also needs the business to tide it over until the 1991 expiration of $1.3 billion in patented drugs opens some new markets.

Despite the inspection's findings, the generic drugs may be bioequivalent to the patented drugs.

As a generic drug, lovastatin costs much less than brand-name patented drugs like Lipitor.

What the industry has feared most is so-called compulsory licensing - a government basically allowing a patented drug to be copied.

Generics are usually much cheaper than patented drugs, and the threat of competition has reduced prices of both in some places.

At issue is Canada's practice of allowing companies that make generic drugs to produce copies of patented drugs.

Many states allow substitutions, if a patented drug is replaced by a generic copy, or if a patient's doctor signs off.

Generics companies that manufacture patented drugs are "pirates on the high seas," Sir Richard said.

But there are other ways to guard against illegal trade, such as prohibiting generic manufacturers from mimicking the packaging of patented drugs.