Psychedelic patents are broken…
It’s a common story in the U.S.: An old and cheap drug was transformed into an expensive, inaccessible product. This happened through patents, legally granted rights to exclude others from making or selling an invention.
In the short time that psychedelic drugs have received attention from start-up companies and venture capitalists, there have already been problematic patents. Patents are supposed to be granted on inventions that are new, and not obvious to someone in a given field. But just like in other areas of pharma, we’ve seen patents and patent applications on “inventions” that academics say they have already published about, on products that people have used in recreational settings for years, on minute modifications to molecules used for thousands of years, on rudimentary aspects of psychedelic-assisted therapy, and on uses for psychedelics that have never been tested.
Original Article (Vice Magazine):
Psychedelic patents are broken because the patent system is broken
Artwork Fair Use: Gausanchennai
