The more you turn medical research into a noble endeavor with no chance of making money, the more you're going to drive brilliant people to Wall Street and Silicon Valley companies instead.
The company that developed this sold to Gilead for $11 billion (less than a WhatsApp) after 13 years. Why would Gilead even buy the company if they could copy the drug for free? And why spend 13 years building this company with no hope for an exit? Especially when drug development is incredibly risky. For every success like this, there are many companies that fold with nothing to show after burning eight or nine figures of capital.
Pharmasset lost a total of $325mm during those 13 years before their exit. Then Gilead spent an additional two years and an undisclosed sum bringing it to market.
In the absence of IP legal protection, this would be a non-issue.
Because Pharmasset (who Gilead bought) would have invested all that money they did without IP legal protection anyway, right? That would be totally logical.
If there was no IP protection, everything would have to be publicly funded. Which I'm ok with, but you can't go halfway.
Really? We as a society have the knowledge necessary to cure a person's illness and yet they go untreated.
In the absence of IP legal protection, this would be a non-issue.