Northwestern University — Attraction in Evanston Township

There is zero excuse for an alleged university to put profits before the pain and suffering of millions. Northwestern University holds a patent on Lyrica (pregabalin), a drug which makes the difference for millions between being able to work and have a normal life, or live in a nightmare of extreme pain.

Not only has Northwestern University successfully blocked any research, development, or testing of generic alternatives, they also managed to get their 2004 patent, due to expire October 2013, extended by another 5 years.

The average cost per patient for Lyrica is $330 per month. Northwestern University, which receives taxpayer funding for their drug research in the hundreds of millions annually, not to mention $1.3 billion annually in tuition and "gifts" from allumni, earns over $800 million annually off their 58 patents, nearly all of it from Lyrica. Another $1 billion annually goes to Pfizer, which provides the marketing and distribution. Interestingly, the profits from Lyrica do not appear on any public budget for the university.

I don't care how great the education is at this university, when they put profits over the pain and suffering of others. I was patient with the original patent expiration of October 2013, despite the hardship over the last two years, that gave Northwestern a record $7.2 billion in profits since 2004. Blocking even R&D into generic alternatives for another 5 years ($4 billion more in profits) is obscene.

Either allow the patent to expire on the original schedule, October 2013, or I will contact my elected officials (one of whom is Paul Ryan, you know, the one who loves to find ways to slash the federal budget no matter how many are hurt by it), and demand an end to all taxpayer funding (research grants, Pell grants, student loans, etc). Northwestern is already wealthy enough off their patents and four for-profit businesses to offer every single student a completely free and all-inclusive education and still turn a very healthy profit.

All I want to do is get back to work, but greed such as seen with Northwestern University is...

Some places have an aura about them. By reputation or mythology. This is one of them. Thought about coming here for years. Every time I drove by, saw Alice Millar Chapel. Came here for grad studies. Interdisciplinary program. Loved the classes. It was intense. Enjoyed research. Hours spent in the library. Advanced learning. Refining ideas and conceptualization. Walks & discussions with friends. Their passions, ideas. The beauty of the campus and the trees. The lakefront. Dealing with the cold, walking from the parking lot, which was always crowded. Spent two years. Got what I needed: credentials, competencies, skills and a degree from my dream, Northwestern University. Also learned about Academia. At an exorbitant price. Inter and intra departmental administrative bias and politics. Its Kafkaesque impact on program studies, implementation & planned education. The true meaning of a Ph.D: myth vs. reality. Its not scholarship. The actual toll of pursuit. Identity politics in its pure form. A post-modern glass bead game, partisan rules on a shifting ever left political landscape. I have always treasured my time here, what I learned, and the friends I made. It...

Decanted from my Spawning Vat at the start of my second cycle of my never ending agonizing life, I slithered as a caecilian out onto the lubricated streets of Evanston, world capital for Reptile Human hybrids just like me. I noted a strange encumbrance weighing upon my empyrean soul however; I required intelligence to replenish my vasculature and prevent my Noggin from becoming a mere Necrotic Core. I approached the most obvious solution and applied to become a student/creature at Northwestern University, which as everyone knows is about 90% Reptiles and 10% humans who merely act like reptiles. However, upon beholding my remarkable resume, I was denied. Me? Denied? These pestilential pustules who purport themselves as people deny me? I launched a full scale investigation into this matter at once. It was discovered to be a unprecedented incident of corruption that I could not fathom. I was not cold blooded, unthinking, and reptile like for this school. Me??? Not reptile enough for their standards??! I immediately died after...