129.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.

答案是B

不理解 why --臨床實驗需要10年 跟support 這個industry 的要求申請延期專利權使用 的關係 我也不了解 這樣如何反駁其他industry 不雇發展成本 在期限內完成的情形

請指教

唉 我想又跟閱讀能力有關吧

尽管药品被授予专利后，可以受到20年的保护，但是在药品投放市场之前，还必

须经过临床实验，这要用去10年的时间，这样专利保护的时间只剩下10年，这期间产

品可能还收不回研发的成本，所以要申请延期。

而对于其他行业，尽管成本很高，但是有整20年的保护，可能足够了，也就不用在延

期了。