ABSTRACT

The development of new pharmaceutical or biotechnology-derived products undergoes a  lengthy and expensive cycle, which is adequately described elsewhere in the book. Given  the cost of development now hovering around the billion-dollar mark for each new drug, amortized over all other molecules racing, the only way to protect this investment is to create intellectual property claims to not only the active molecule but wherever possible, each and every step of its production, processing, and testing. Almost 4% of the development cost is spent on ling and prosecuting patents.