alt Hacker News> A lot of potential treatments are too easily available and can't be patented.
This isn’t really an obstacle, at least not as much as it’s made out to be.
There are numerous examples of drugs being brought to market at high prices despite having been generic compounds. Even old drugs can be brought back at $1000/month or more at different doses or delivery mechanisms.
One example: Doxepin is an old antidepressant that is extremely cheap. It was recently re-certified for sleep at lower doses and reintroduced at low doses at a much higher price, despite being “off patent”.
This happens all the time. The drug companies aren’t actually abandoning usable treatments due to patent issues as much as journalists have claimed. If they couldn’t, for some reason, find a way to charge for it they could still use it as a basis for finding an improved relayed compound with more targeted effects, better pharmacokinetics, etc.
They’re not just dropping promising treatments anywhere if there’s a market for them.
About Doxepin. As many seniors do, I also suffer from extreme inability to stay asleep at night. I have trialed through all the known prescription and non prescription possibilities, only eszopiclone and baclofen seem to show some promise, however, eszopiclone is DEA listed, requires higher and higher doses, and if I take it more than say 2 weeks, it has rather serious side effects attempting to withdraw, addictive, serious anxiety, trying to wean oneself off it. Doxepin is prescribed as an antidepressant in large doses, one of the most potent H1 histamine antagonists known. The H1 system in our bodies promotes wakefulness. In very low doses, doxepin acts against the H1 to promote sleep. To avoid the upcharges of low dose doxepin, I am prescribed the high dose version, which I have to break the capsules to administer about 5 to 10 mg. placed in an empty gelatin capsule (it's bitter). It really works well, however you are fairly tired and useless the next day.