Aligning pharmaceutical innovation with medical need

Carl Nathan has an interesting commentary in a recent edition of Nature, Aligning pharmaceutical innovation with medical need

He's basically advocating two fundamental reforms to the pharmaceutical industry and the patent system.

Firstly create open access drugs companies - free for service sites within the pharma industry to allow collaboration amongst technical experts and funded by government and users. Secondly a patent system that rewards patent holders in proportion to the impact the developed drugs have on major diseases and facilitating a pricing system that would give those in need access to the drugs.

Sounds simple in theory. Now why can't we do it?

Email monitoring may contravene European laws

From ZDNet: Email monitoring may contravene European laws

"Monitoring employees' internet and telephone use at work may contravene human rights laws, after a landmark case in the European Court of Human Rights last week.

The case involved a public-sector employee, who won €3,000 in damages and €6,000 in court costs and expenses, after her communications were intercepted by her employer, Carmarthenshire College, based in South Wales. Lynette Copland successfully took the UK government to court after her personal internet usage and telephone calls were monitored by one of her bosses in 1999."

DRM doesn't work

Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu fame has been having his tuppence worth on DRM: Note to content owners: DRM doesn’t work

"Here are some reality bites:

Any DRM that involves offline key storage will be broken...

The alternative to offline key storage is streaming-only access, and that is equally unprotectable...

It only takes one crack...you cannot plug all the holes...

Someone will find a business model that doesn’t depend on the old way of thinking"

Millions to rebel over ID cards

From the Sunday Times: Millions to rebel over ID cards

It's a steal

From John Lanchester at the Guardian: It's a steal