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  3. In 1742 Benjamin Franklin invented a new type of stove, for which he was offered a patent. Franklin refused it, arguing in his a

In 1742 Benjamin Franklin invented a new type of stove, for which he was offered a patent. Franklin refused it, arguing in his a

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问题     In 1742 Benjamin Franklin invented a new type of stove, for which he was offered a patent. Franklin refused it, arguing in his autobiography that because "we enjoyed great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours."
    Most inventors are not as generous as the "Newton of Electricity": They want to turn their inventions into a profit. The patent system, which was developed independently in 15th-century Venice and then in 17th-century England, gave entrepreneurs a monopoly to sell their inventions for a number of years. Yet by the 1860s the patent system came under attack. Patents, critics argued, inhibited future creativity by allowing inventors to rest on their laurels. Recent economic research backs this up.
    The pharmaceutical industry makes the best case for patents (and makes the most of patents when they are approved). Medical research and development (R&D) is costly. Moreover, although a patent application must be filed straight after a drug discovery, clinical trials necessary for drug approval may take several years. This shortens the effective life of the patent, which causes problems. In order to prove the efficacy of a drug, pharmaceuticals have to match the length of a clinical trial to the expected survival time of the patients. A clinical trial for patients with a spreading cancer lasts only three years compared to an 18-year-long trial for those suffering from a milder, localized cancer. Since a typical patent is in force for 20 years, firms only have two years of effective patent length left to commercialize a new drug against the localized cancer.
    The data paint a gloomy picture. Pharmaceutical companies conduct 30 times more clinical trials for recurrent cancer drugs than for preventive drugs. They divert their R&D expenditures away from more curable, localized cancers and focus on incurable spreading and recurrent cancers instead. The patent system encourages pharmaceuticals to pump out drugs aimed at those who have almost no chance of surviving the cancer anyway. This patent distortion costs the U.S. economy around $89 billion a year in lost lives.
    A one-size-fits-all patent system does not cater to the specifics of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. But tailoring patent law may encourage lobbying and corruption. A careful reform of the patent system is necessary: Complete abolition of patents will not be enough to save cancer patients’ lives.
Paragraph 3 is mainly concerned with________.
选项 A、the procedures of applications for a drug patent
B、the reason drug companies focus on incurable cancers
C、various provisions on clinical trials of new drugs
D、the relationships between R&D and drug approval
答案B
解析 第三段的中心内容是说明为什么制药公司主要关注某些不治之症。文章首先介绍了临床试验与专利权的关系。临床试验的时间越长，享受专利的期限越短。某一类良性肿瘤患者可能生存18年，而新药的专利权只有20年。如果某公司研发的某种新药用于治疗该类型肿瘤，其临床试验需耗时18年，专利权只剩下2年了，那么该公司就觉得吃亏了。因此，制药公司倾向于研发用于治疗无治愈希望疾病的新药。
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