How Diabetes Management Suffers Because of Patents

New medicines to deal with diabetes and its complications are a dime a dozen. Certainly no year has passed in this century without new discoveries and devices to make life with diabetes better.

So what is my crib?

Complementary and Alternative medicine, herbs, and other natural substances, which were used before the days of modern medicine, are ignored. Most of these are way cheaper than proprietary medicines, and are therefore especially meaningful for the unemployed, and for those without health insurance.

Complementary and Alternative medicine has not been tested for safety and efficacy to the standards of modern science. That is because clinical trials cost millions of dollars. Society depends largely on private capital for new medical discoveries, and investors will not back stakes without prospects of financial returns.

We have become so dependent on patented medicines that large numbers in our ranks can afford them only after they become generics. Many potential natural substances remain incompletely tested and standardized in the meantime.

Long term solutions lies in shortening patent durations, in organizations which work not-for-profit taking leads in health care research, and in finding alternate ways to compensate pharmaceutical companies for their R&D efforts.

You and I cannot effect such path-breaking changes in a day, but it is worth being conscious of the vile effects of the capitalist system of patents on diabetes management, and on other diseases which plague society as well.