News & Comment

From Darley Oaks to the New York Stock Exchange — the UK has a new export.

Study says people should not be diagnosed with the condition.

Government money sorely needed to sustain success.

The doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting has been used with considerable success in recent years to defeat later-issued claims in the patent estates of new drug innovators (see box). This judicially created doctrine is grounded in policy, rather than the language of the Patent Statute, with the explicit goal of preventing the 'unjustified time-wise extension' of a patent owner's right to exclude others from practicing the patented invention.

It is often said that the pharmaceutical industry only adapts in response to a crisis, and Vioxx might instigate the most dramatic of all changes. The withdrawal of Vioxx has exposed many scientific, clinical, regulatory and business issues that are fundamental to the industry's future. With the integrity of the drug-safety system under scrutiny, companies urgently need to understand how these problems arose, and how they can be prevented in future. One year on from Vioxx's withdrawal, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery asked people closely involved in the development and use of COX2-selective inhibitors what they think are the biggest lessons that can be learnt from this debacle.