Hacker News Reader

Comment by dnautics | Hacker News Reader

That's like saying it takes 7 billion to make a company that competes with facebook, and you'll never get 7 billion series A funding. Trivially true, but to compete with facebook is a process, and not all stages of a process use the same funding mechanisms.

View on HN

What's the plan for the rest of the money, grants ?

Grants and big donors to push through preclinical and a for profit partner for clinical is my vision, but I am open minded to alternatives.

Doesn't that fall apart when the for profit partner needs to pay the other $990 million dollars and then still cannot patent the drug?

I don't know. It's certainly a risk, but there's only one way to find out. I think there are companies willing to do it (cipla is one that I'm thinking about approaching).

I'd like to see more of a potential plan here - otherwise I'm afraid that making a drug un-patentable would make it /less/ likely that it goes to market.

I believe I've seen evidence of exactly that happening as margins for a drug are very low if it can't be protected (via IP), and the cost to bring a drug to market is so high.

I see many problems with current IP system - but I don't see how this is avoidable in a completely commoditizable generic drug market.

If I'm making some incorrect assumptions here, I'd love to know!

> I'm afraid that making a drug un-patentable would make it /less/ likely that it goes to market

This is definitely a possible outcome.

http://biz.yahoo.com/p/5qpmu.html

generics manufacturers make ~ 6% margin, which is basically "what most businesses make". "Drug manufacturers - Major" make 20% margin. Keep in mind also that big pharma spends about as much on advertising as they do on R&D.

Would you like to sign up for a buggy minimum viable drug treatment?

Not every startup has to produce a "minimum viable" product. Treatments also do not have to start with human trials.

If I had terminal cancer, absolutely!

I'm with this guy, if I have terminal cancer. I'll try a remedy made from dirt if it has a chance. I mean what's to lose, at that point my body becomes a free testing lab.

Oh yes. I forgot scientists produce life saving medicine from their dorm rooms all the time. How could I forget.

> Oh yes. I forgot scientists produce life saving medicine from their dorm rooms all the time. How could I forget.

That's more common than most people realize (meaning something being discovered through work in an unrelated context). Look at the discovery of Penicillin as one example, there are many others.

"Remember that thing that happened in 1928" is hardly a compelling case. That's like saying you can build a major telecom company without computers because Bell did it.

> "Remember that thing that happened in 1928" is hardly a compelling case.

And that wasn't what I said -- Penicillin is just one example. Look at the polymerase chain reaction, thought up during a late-night drive by a graduate student and now ubiquitous in biology and medicine. Look at the first polio vaccine, created at very low cost by someone who was so sure of his results, and so short of funds, that he used his own children as test subjects.

Examples abound. One need only look.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com