Congress Many industry experts agree that the Hatch-Waxman Act established the legal and economic foundations for what has become today's generic drug industry. In Search of Fair Balance Legislative proposals that would erode the patent system in the US, and the exclusivity granted to innovative pharmaceutical compounds, are misguided, a recent academic study concludes. Abraham Lincoln said that patents added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius. But it was not genius and genius alone that Lincoln and our founding fathers desired from a patent system. Rather, their object was innovation more to the point, the discoveries and inventions, machines and tools, devices and compounds that they believed, with their faith in the future and mankind, would improve human life.
Innovation is the answer.
Patents are crucial because they make it possible for society to realize or secure the benefits of genius, creativity and effort. It takes 12-15 years on average for an experimental drug to travel from the lab to U.S. patients. Only five in 5,000 compounds that enter preclinical testing make it to human testing. One of these five tested in people is approved.