Patenting constitutes the best way to secure intellectual property from undue commercial exploitation by others. The United States government allows the original inventors of any product or concept to patent it for a period of 17 years. During this period other competitors cannot duplicate, create or sell the patented product. Though patenting protects the hard earned results of the original inventor it has a crippling effect on the society at large. Patenting creates a monopolistic market, which is not consumer-friendly at all as it gives more market power (domination) to the firm. Any idea or invention is useful to the society only when it is easily accessible and affordable. Patenting seriously limits the scope of the product or invention. Alongside patenting, healthcare industry is seriously affected by tariffs and import and export restrictions on generic drugs.
             Theoretically all monopolies are profitable for the firms while consumers are at a great disadvantage. However, in the case of Paxil there are some serious legal infringements. Paxil continues to heap huge profits for GlaxoSmithKline because the company manages to extend the patent indefinitely by claiming and securing new patents for the different ingredients used in the drug. It is estimated that Paxil earns around $4.4 million each day that it manages to prolong its monopoly by keeping the generic competitors at bay.
             SmithKline's revenue from the sale of Paxil amounted to $2.1 billion in 1999 which can be attributed the monopolistic market it enjoys. If a bottle of Paxil costs $ 50 then SmithKline has sold 42,000,000 bottles in 1999 alone, which is a measure of the huge demand for the product. It is natural for the firm to prolong the monopoly in order to amass huge profits that accrue from a non-competitive market. As we discussed earlier the longer the monopolistic trend is prolonged the greater the profits for the company. Once other generic manufacturers shar...