The plot of "I Am Not the God of Medicine" reveals a door of thought for the audience: why is generic medicine, the secret passage to the holy land of healing, not taken by more countries?
In particular, the price of drugs is sky-high, and the general public is discouraged. Could it be that there is no trace of the medical miracle of the West in the East?
Before answering the puzzle of this path, let's first explore the steep mountains and rivers of new drug development.
The difficult road of patents is a Everest of scientific research cost and time: the birth of new drugs often goes through more than ten years of frost, the results of thousands of tempers, and still needs to face layers of gatekeepers for clinical trials and official approvals, with a total investment of hundreds of millions.
The United States, as a pioneer in the pharmaceutical industry, passed the Hatch-Waxman Act as early as the eighties of the previous century, establishing a wall of patent rights.
This wall surrounds the new medicine, forming an exclusive garden for 20 years: no one is allowed to enter, or face strong legal sanctions.
Immediately, the authorized production model also became popular among pharmaceutical companies, but the tickets here are sky-high in money, and ordinary people are daunted. In this round of money games, new drug imitations are like the tip of the pyramid that is out of reach.
India, on the other hand, is like cracking the Da Vinci code in the pharmaceutical world, and their generic drugs have climbed over the patent wall with extraordinary legal acrobatics.
Through the unique "process patent" rule, Indian craftsmen changed their footwork on the road of imitation, and avoided the penetration of patent fees.
The expedition was more like a quid pro quo: India's drug testing market opened its doors to the West, with millions of people as pioneers in drug testing, at a sacrifice that acquiesced to European and American pharmaceutical companies and secretly blurred the line between legal and illegal.
In such a reality, it's no wonder that generic drugs in India thrive on native soil and are exported to the rest of the world – even though they are officially marketed in compliance with patent laws.
As a result, the small shop in the depths of the alley has become a secret realm of the "God of Medicine", where generic drugs come out, and the two sides trade privately, just like performing a classic spy drama.
Although the research and development of medical science and technology in China, an ancient civilization, is constantly improving, it seems that it is still looking for a legal and efficient path in the field of generic drugs.
The different institutions, legal bases and market environments from India have created a complex drug development ecosystem.
Under the protection of Indian law, the empire built by the generic drug industry did not happen overnight, and its origins are deeply rooted in the depths of history, and now it has become a non-negligible part of the global pharmaceutical supply thanks to its responsive pharmaceutical factories and its unique market network.
So Huaxia is exploring its own direction in the face of this achievement. Is it possible to develop your own generic drug industry without touching the patent minefield?
A new chess game that can not only solve the suffering of the sick people, but also establish the international medical map. A Chinese-style answer will eventually emerge from this land full of wisdom and courage.
Knowledge, law, market, morality, each element will be given a unique value and meaning in this quest. The next chapter of the global pharmaceutical map may be waiting for Huaxia's pen to outline.