Increasing market exclusivity for new drugs, the cure for what ails us?: patent highlight.

On November 7, 1991, the tremendously skilled and charismatic NBA basketball star Ervin “Magic” Johnson shocked the sport’s world by announcing his early retirement from basketball because he was infected with HIV. In 1991, HIV infection was essentially a death sentence and Magic’s decision was considered a logical surrender to the disease’s inevitable march. Flash forward to 2012, and Magic Johnson is not only alive but quite well; but his is only one story out of millions, thanks to the HIV-specific antiretroviral drugs developed by the pharmaceutical industry. The tremendous improvement in prognosis for HIV patients treated with modern antiretroviral agents is not the only fruit of recent pharmaceutical innovations that is helping people around the world to live healthier and longer lives. Significant advances have been made in the prevention and/or treatment of hepatitis C, chronic cardiovascular and diabetic conditions, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, central nervous system disorders, and cancer, among others. But even as researchers across the industry and around the globe continue to fight a multifront battle against a full array of serious diseases, the pharmaceutical industry is simultaneously engaged in a vital struggle against man-made threats, including a noxious and potent combination of private and public healthcare pricing pressures, increased regulatory and marketing scrutiny, an ever more aggressive generic drug industry, extended drug development times, and skyrocketing clinical and legal costs. While most of the world is unaware of these problems, those in the industry are all too familiar with the resultant mergers, abandoned projects, reduced early R&D spend, site closings, and the layoffs that have impeded progress to further develop innovative medicines.