CR The pharmaceutical industry argues

[RonPurewal]

the basic idea of choice C is "there are other industries that have the same problem the pharma guys have—and for them the problem is even worse."

...this clearly doesn't help. if anything, it goes the opposite way (by making the pharma industry's situation seem LESS 'special').

i'm not seeing any benefit from using specific numbers here.
the only numerical relationship in this problem is 'THIS ratio is higher than THAT one', which is easy to understand without specific values.

(can you understand 'I'm shorter than my brother' without plugging in specific heights? i bet you can. this situation is no more complicated.)

[750plus]

the basic idea of choice C is "there are other industries that have the same problem the pharma guys have—and for them the problem is even worse."

...this clearly doesn't help. if anything, it goes the opposite way (by making the pharma industry's situation seem LESS 'special').

i'm not seeing any benefit from using specific numbers here.
the only numerical relationship in this problem is 'THIS ratio is higher than THAT one', which is easy to understand without specific values.

(can you understand 'I'm shorter than my brother' without plugging in specific heights? i bet you can. this situation is no more complicated.)

yeah, i can. thanks !

Regards

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

[JoyZ981]

Hi Ron, question for you (with due respect- I might be wrong).

Where in the question stem is it mentioned that the other industries receive 20 years of patent protection as the Pharma companies do??

What if they receive 10??

The question says however in other industries - !!

i see your point, but this issue would have no effect on the outcome of the question. anything that currently strengthens the pharmaceutical industry's argument would still strengthen that argument, even if there were different patent terms.

(by the way, the wording of choice (a) shows that we're assuming a 20-year term across the board.)

Hi Ron, I have similar doubt as Karanrob did.
The challenge in the question involves a comparison, which is "in other industries new-product development continues despite high development costs", so I think an appropriate answer should point out a difference between the pharmaceutical industry and other industries to demonstrate that conditions in other industries are different from those in pharmaceutical industry.
But choice B doesn't mention any difference between them. If the trials of new products in other industries also take 10 years or even longer, the extension will be unnecessary.
I'm clear that other choices are not appropriate, but I can't see why choice B is the right answer. Can you please explain it? Thank you!

[RonPurewal]

But choice B doesn't mention any difference between them. If the trials of new products in other industries also take 10 years or even longer, the extension will be unnecessary.

this makes sense in an abstract way, but, in the real world, the blue thing is clearly not true. most products hit the market as soon as they've gone through a token amount of beta testing.

you always, always, ALWAYS have to think about real-world implications.
in fact, this is one of the most important core principles of GMAT CR (perhaps even the most important one): the problems REQUIRE a fundamental grounding in the real world—thus ensuring, among other things, that it is impossible to solve them with memorized 'rules'.

[anmols726]

HI Posting on an old thread.

I think I have very silly doubt but still, If anybody could correct my line of understanding of option E.

I actually thought that E could mean that- other industries do not require patents as it is ineffective. So their industry is flourishing without any concept of patent. However, in pharma industry Patent are required so --> extension is required now

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

I don't understand your logic: how does "in pharma industry Patent are required" follow from "their industry is flourishing without any concept of patent"? And how does "extension is required now" follow from "in pharma industry Patent are required"?

Answer E seems to weaken the conclusion by providing examples of industries that flourish without effective patent protection.