Question

The pharmaceutical industry argues that because new drugs will not be developed unless heavy development costs can be recouped in later sales, the current 20 years of protection provided by patents should be extended in the case of newly developed drugs. However, in other industries new-product development continues despite high development costs, a fact that indicates that the extension is unnecessary.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the pharmaceutical industry’s argument against the challenge made above?
(A) No industries other than the pharmaceutical industry have asked for an extension of the 20-year limit on patent protection.
(B) Clinical trials of new drugs, which occur after the patent is granted and before the new drug can be marketed, often now take as long as 10 years to complete.
(C) There are several industries in which the ratio of research and development costs to revenues is higher than it is in the pharmaceutical industry.
(D) An existing patent for a drug does not legally prevent pharmaceutical companies from bringing to market alternative drugs, provided they are sufficiently dissimilar to the patented drug.
(E) Much recent industrial innovation has occurred in products—for example, in the computer and electronics industries—for which patent protection is often very ineffective.

Answer 1

(B) Clinical trials of new drugs, which occur after the patent is granted and before the new drug can be marketed, often now take as long as 10 years to complete.

Step-by-step explanation:

This option supports the pharmaceutical industry's claim because the research and development time of a new drug can be as long as half its patent life. Generally R&D on other industries takes a much shorter time, or at least not as much as half the patent's life.

Personally I would agree with the pharmaceutical industry if in exchange they would sell their drugs in the US at the same price as they are sold in Canada or Europe, or any other country in the world. The patent extension would benefit them and reduce the price of drugs by 80-90% in the US. I'm certain that the later would never happen, because the US is by far the largest cow milk for pharmaceutical companies because it is the only countries where the price of legal drugs is not regulated.