Create a publicly owned manufacturer for off-patent, generic drugs in the UK
Establish a national UK manufacturer of essential, off-patent, generic medicines (such as hydrocortisone, liothyronine or insulin) within the NHS. Make these medicines at close to production cost, in order to prevent the unethical practice of price gouging.
Thank you
Written by
Angelwings1
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This demonstrates the effectiveness of non-profit motivation in competing with industry; an investment of £100,000 has saved the NHS over £50 million each year
That is usually used to refer to medicines on which the patent has expired. (Which can occur on different dates in different regions/countries.)
But in the case of liothyronine (T3) - and levothyroxine (T4) - they never were patented in the UK and USA so the phrase could be slightly misleading. However, I am confident that "off-patent" would be interpreted as including "never-patented" by any reasonable person.
Unfortunately in a legal sense they are not the same. The wording should include both "off-patent/out-of-patent" plus "never-patented" to be accurate. Legally speaking this petition would not cover all the drugs intended to be included, even if we might reasonably understand that it would.
It should have been written like that but petitions are not themselves strict legal documents. The authors tend to be well-intended ordinary people, though sometimes with particular relevant experience.
Further, the petitions bods will terminate similar petitions so even if there had been another one, written to the highest standards of legal precision, it might have been rejected because a broadly similar petition is already active.
Such distinctions can be discussed if the petition reaches sufficient signatures and certainly before any moves are made with regard to regulations or law. Where precision really matters.
"Never-patented" is itself questionable. About all we know for many things would be "not-yet-patented".
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