Cliff Diving: Evergreening & Other Oddities

When you hear the expression pro bono, you probably think of someone working for free. The expression is actually an abbreviation of a longer Latin phrase, pro bono publico—for the public good. No one is asking drug companies to work for free. Profits are an important motivation to continue investments in new therapeutics and pharmaceutical research. That said, it is time to modernize patent law to ensure that patents continue to work pro bono publico.

Philip Seo, MD, MHS, is an associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.

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