Several days ago I learnt some excellent news, a university medical research team have revealed a new way to treat bone fractures. It's called Bone-02 but has already gotten the nickname Bone glue due to how it works.
A Chinese research team in East China's Zhejiang Province unveiled an innovative product called "Bone 02" bone glue on Wednesday. Inspired by oysters, this glue can treat fractures with a single injection and bond shattered bone fragments in just three minutes, according to local media Zhejiang Online.
I'm impressed, this breakthrough has the potential to be life changing. In 2022, I was involved in a road accident and snapped my ankle, the break was clean, so surgery wasn't necessary, but it meant I spent months moving from crutches to a walking boot, and even today it still plays up. I don't know how Bone-02 would fair in my case, but I'm sure it'll be a marked improvement for many people.
Much of the ecstatic news was coupled with cheering for Chinese Communism. Which is a bit odd since the People's Republic of China is a well-developed capitalist economy and in this particularly case has already applied for domestic and international patents.
Their perseverance paid off, and Bone-02 has now secured applications for Chinese invention patents and international PCT patents, paving the way for global adoption.
This is literally capitalist economics 101. Odd praise aside this is an important development, I have no doubt that should the work pan out the world of medicine will have a major new tool. The issue here is that we'll have 20 years or more for the world to truly see the benefits of this new technology. Patents aren't quite copyright, but they work in similar ways, they grant the holder exclusive right to exploit the product or invention for a term of 20 years. This makes them highly desirable and lucrative, because it means reproduction and use are limited to the holder and anyone they enter into a licensing agreement with.
Usually at this point in the discussion someone declares that this is fine as it's only right that the creators of such useful inventions are rewarded for their work. The issue with that thinking is that it relies on two assumptions. 1. That the patent holder played a part in the creation, usually it's a corporation with the immediate benefits going to the owner and not anyone whose labours created the thing being patented. 2. It assumes that the creators would be unable to profit from their creations without patents, and odd argument since they last a mere 20 years. You remember Fidget Spinners? The inventor Scott McCorsky obtained a patent in 2018 for what he called the Torqbar, four years after he had already been selling his invention. That is why when the fidget spinner craze took off there were so many different versions. He still made money off his creation without a patent. He still sells them and you can buy an original here.
The cheapest is $139, which is well out of my price range so as someone who benefits from fidget toys I both appreciate McCorsky awakening interest and his late patenting enabling the birth of many other variations and providers.
But moving on from toys medical patents and property rights and restrictions are serious business and potentially damaging. You go to a chemist to buy some medicine for some ailment and usually you'll have atleast two or three options to choose from, a branded version and a cheaper generic version. I don't how things work in your country but here generics are held to same standards on quality as the branded medications. Unfortunately this is not always the case and the lack of alternatives can be costly. Every morning I have to take a capsule, the capsule are quite clever they're modified release so just one is enough to see me through the day whereas otherwise I would need to take two. That's handy as while prescriptions are capped they still cost, and it saves me having to remember to take another halfway through the day.
I'm quite happy with my medication, the side effects are mild and cleared up quickly, and they've enabled me to function and live my life. Unfortunately, there are no generic alternatives. This is a problem as supply is limited to one producer which keeps the costs high relatively compared to alternatives, which means pharmacies (which are private companies) do not like to stock it, that keeps supplies low and also bottlenecks demand as providers prefer to prescribe the cheaper options with generic alternatives. This has led to occasional shortages, which has forced me to spend several days pulling lists of pharmacies and ringing them one by one to find one that still has some in stock or can order from their supplier. It's anxiety and worry I can do without, but unfortunately the patent was granted in 2021, so I'm stuck in this situation until 2041.
In addition, the Epipen, remember the horrifying headlines of the price hikes for the device that administers insulin, and treatments for anaphylactic shock? They could get away with that because the Epipen was patented, I say was because while looking up the patent for this post I discovered that the patent expired in September this year.
In January 2025, Mylan reached a $73.5m settlement with KPH Healthcare Services following accusations that it conspired with Pfizer and Teva Pharmaceuticals to delay the release of generic EpiPens, thereby maintaining a monopoly and inflating prices for epinephrine autoinjectors.
The lawsuit contested that prices for a two-pack of EpiPens rose from around $100 in 2008 to $600 during the class period between March 2014 and February 2025.
While it was still patented, the only recourse was to lobby government to intervene (good luck) or expensive and time-consuming lawsuits if enough grounds for a court hearing could be found. Well, not quite, there was another alternative, in 2016 a group of Anarchists with backgrounds in chemistry and medicine the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective develop a DIY Epipen they called an Epipencil and released the details and list of materials you'd need to build your own. That's right, in order to keep living and not die from a treatable condition some people have to build their own medical devices, and most patients don't even get that option.
Patents give an incredible amount of power to corporate interests. Yes, it is unfair and frustrating when companies like Nintendo use patents to squeeze out competition, but sometimes it's literally life and death!
In order for humanity to advance and thrive, some shareholders will just have to learn to go without all the money in the world.
