I just saw my GP who complained about the lack of innovation in pharmaceuticals because Big Pharma is busy buying up patents for existing drugs so they can mark them up and maximize returns through acquisitions, rather than from innovation.

Yes, this is one of the points that I was trying to make and the reason why I complain about “government failure.” How can you promote creativity by hampering creativity?

I did the same as you even before I got my treatment, due to food intolerance issues and then found out bread and dairies did not agree with me either, but lichen planus is due to an autoimmune response against HepC virus and has nothing to do with it. Apparently, your system goes into overdrive in trying to fight against the virus in this sort of failed battle, so it starts targeting healthy tissue. I was only asking as it is annoying, but like I am saying, I seem to itch less and less day by day, so hopefully enough, I shall get rid of it in due course. Thanks for your reply mate.

To put it briefly, the social returns from innovative activities are held to be very high, but it does not necessarily follow from this that the private returns are also high. The only way patent holders may capitalize on inventions is by suppressing their development, even though these inventions would benefit the public. Moreover, patents lead to waste by inducing others to invent around protected monopoly positions. The marginal cost of using existing information should be zero and therefore the creation of “artificial” property rights is wasteful. This is to say patent laws promotes secrecy and puts up all legal and administrative costs and is arbitrary in that it does incentivize to focus on the sorts of research which are patentable.

In 3 days time I will be 4 weeks into my treatment. So far I haven’t had any mayor issues or side effects apart from diarrhoea after 3 days into my treatment. As I suffer from gallstones as well, it is very difficult to tell what is caused by A or B, so I cannot help being a little bit confused at the moment. One thing I noticed, and I don’t even know if this makes any sense, is that I seem to be fully aware of the fact I am asleep when I go to bed and I’d say I am not as tired as I used to be. In fact, I am not sure I am tired at all. I am used to take occasional naps during the day, but I don’t fancy it anymore, and if I do, I don’t get any sleep. Also, I don’t have any muscle or joint pains anymore and I don’t itch as often as I used to, but when I do, it is very mild. However, I am still suffering from occasional tachycardia and stress like symptoms for no apparent reason. The feeling is very similar to being worried (anxiety) but without any apparent worrying factors.