The government can award a patent to a business that has developed a new product or a new process or technique for producing a product. The patent gives that business the exclusive right to produce that product or use that technique for the life of the patent. In other words, the patent gives the business a monopoly for the life of the patent. Most patents last for 20 years.

One area in which patents are common is the medical field. Pharmaceutical companies can receive patents for new drugs that they have developed. For example, the Eli Lilly Company received a patent for the drug Prozac; Pfizer received a patent for Viagra. More recently. Modern, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson for received patents for the covid-19 vaccines they developed.

Explain whether patents on pharmaceutical drugs are A Good Thing or A Bad Thing.