big win for major pharma

Buried in the recently passed US health legislation was a provision to extend patent protection on drugs to twelve years with the possibility of an extension of another twelve years if the drug is modified in some way during that time. This effectivly extends the monopoly that these companies have on their discoveries from a period of five years with three year extensions.
The generic companies are screaming foul but it has already been past. The effect will be a positive for sanofi and other major pharmas who develop new drugs. It will have a flow on effect for uni in that it keeps the number of companies that they have to deal with in the rtf market low if in fact any are using prefills now