Dario: The government should continue to grant patents for all new drug compounds  Patents promote innovation by rewarding pharmaceutical companies for undertaking the costly research needed to develop new drugs  Cynthia: Promoting innovation is certainly important  For this reason, patents should be granted only for truly innovative drugs, not for minor variants of previously existing drugs
Since it is much less expensive to tweak an existing drug than to develop a wholly new one, pharmaceutical companies tend to focus primarily on the cheaper alternative
drug patents can promote innovation