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A comment on New antiviral treatment made from sugar. Parent comment

Re:New antiviral treatment made from sugar by clort on Thursday January 30, 2020 @09:32AM (#22191503)
Pretty sure that government could just buy a patent like this at a price that they choose. Some countries might choose to do that, some might not.

Also, patents expire after only 21 years. They have patented this molecule now, but they haven't actually got a treatment as yet, meaning that the clock is ticking.

I don't know if you can copyright a molecule?

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Re:New antiviral treatment made from sugar by jcranmer on Thursday January 30, 2020 @10:18AM (#22191864)
US patent law states that "compositions of matter" (i.e., drug molecules) are patentable.
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Re:New antiviral treatment made from sugar by thaumasiotes on Thursday January 30, 2020 @12:04PM (#22192980)
To be fair, any physical device, like a printing press, is also a "composition of matter".
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Re:New antiviral treatment made from sugar by rrtthu on Thursday January 30, 2020 @09:44AM (#22191579)
Isn't there also the mirror molecule thing they can do to imitate patented ones?
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Re:New antiviral treatment made from sugar by montalbano on Thursday January 30, 2020 @09:56AM (#22191673)
Not necessarily, see Thalidomide for example:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160208124237.h...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomer#Medicinal_chemistry

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