Profits Pending: How Life Patents Represent the Biggest Swindle of the 21st Century

By Matthew Albright

For some, biotech will be a life-saver. But Albright deftly demonstrates how the industry actually stifles innovation. Patent holders stop development of promising drugs--because the companies won't get a large enough financial reward. And the threat of costly patent infringement suits shuts down critical research. Put baldly, patents are killing people. Albright aims to set it right.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1567512305
• ISBN13: 9781567512304
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Common Courage Press
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic novel by a true philosopher.

I met Matthew Albright almost two years ago now, taking one of his classes at a small college, and that changed my life. I learned he had written a book when, in a Logic class that I took later, he tricked the class into criticizing a passage from it. (We all had a good laugh.) When I was unfortunately forced to leave Professor Albright's tutelage, I made sure to borrow a copy of his book from another student of his, and to put it simply this book is fantastic. Obviously, as the book is several years old, it doesn't quite live up to the modern man, but it is none the less more than worth a read by anybody with an interest in ethics--which should be everyone.

Read this book!!!

Frighteningly informative...This book really lets us know how powerful our patent system has become. This is a must-read for anyone who is interested in gene patenting and what it could mean for our future. I was shocked at what the author had to tell and I urge those who are concerned with the power of big companies and big money to pick it up and check it out. This is a fantastic book!

About financial greed and the abuse of a system

Profits Pending: How Life Patents Represent The Biggest Swindle Of The 21st Century by ethicist Matthew Albright is a critical examination of the practice applying the U.S. patent system to human genes. Exploring current and potential devastating repercussions of such patents, ranging from slowing the research upon deadly diseases; to creating monopolies on world food sources; to eroding critical elements of the scientific method such as free exchange of ideas between researchers, and so much more, Profits Pending is a gripping and insightful analysis of just how financial greed and the abuse of a system can ultimately work to the considerably and enduring detrimental to humanity as a whole. Profits Pending should be required reading for policy makers and pundits involved in the current national debate over genetic research in general -- and the fruits of the genome project in particular.