Possible effects of pharmaceutical patent protection to the rational drug use

With the efforts of advanced countries, especially in the nineties, a lot of Developing and Least Developed Countries, in accordance with the TRIPs, agreed to start the patent protection for the process and the products. In Turkey, patent protection for medicinal products and pharmaceuticals process began on 1 January 1999. On the first part of this study, some information has been given on the development of new drugs and the structure of the pharmaceutical industry in Turkey and in the world. The scope of patent protection and the status of such protection on pharmaceuticals under the international and national related legislations are analyzed. Again in this part, we examined the factors underlying irrational use of drugs On the second part of this study, major forces driving drug costs are analyzed how and some countries handle this issue as well as some information is given for the determination of the drug prices in Turkey. The measures that the government can apply to the control of the increasing costs of drugs for the treatment plans are evaluated. The effects of patent protection to the rational drug use have been discussed.Key words: Innovator and generic drugs, patent protection, rational drug use, and drug prices.