Posted by johnX2 on March 13, 2002, at 4:13:36
In reply to Re: pharmaceutical news flash - expired patents » Elizabeth, posted by fachad on March 12, 2002, at 9:15:09
> Seriously, though, I've been trying to determine how to find out when the patents are up. It would strongly influence my choice of meds in many cases if I knew a patent was about to expire.
>If you ask the investors relations department
at the pharmaceutical company, they should tell
you (just say you are thinking about buying there
stock because you love "xxx" (something they are
doing that you don't give a rat's ass about), but are worried about when "zzz" (drug of interest) goes generic).Also, I have a copy of a book called the "Merck Index". This is a reference book of almost every known chemical on the planet. You can find it at the barnes and noble. The latest version can be purchased on CD. You can find a chemical/pharmaceutical and it will tell you a concise history of all it's properties. It usually lists the patent numbers that were relavent to the compound. You can then go to www.uspto.gov and actually look at the patent if you want to see the details of it.
Here is an example from Zoloft (sertraline).
Looking at the Merk index.
US Patent 4,536,518 (1981,1985 to pfizer).Here is a link to the patent (tells a
chemist how to make the medicine):(hope this pasted, you can punch in the patent
number in their search page too).Just some thoughts.
-John
poster:johnX2
thread:97579
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020313/msgs/97751.html