International Business Times  |  March 3, 2015

While the promise of a longer patent is enticing, Ganem at Novartis says the reward comes too late to properly motivate a company to commit to a new antibiotic. Aliza Glasner, an expert in food and drug law at Georgetown University, suggests another solution: a “wild card” patent that would let a company that developed an antibiotic tack on a short period of patent exclusivity to any drug of their choice – potentially a blockbuster whose profits could more than make up for low returns on the antibiotic.

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