Research Proposal

Pharmaceutical Industry and Patents Research Proposal Draft

The general issue that I plan to investigate is the role of intellectual property in the creation of and impetus for innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Throughout the readings in the New Humanities Reader, Lethem (in his text “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism”) and Stiglitz (in his essay “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society) denounce the use of patents and claim that instead of encouraging innovation, they inhibit innovation. Since patents give firms a “usemonopoly” over that idea, Lethem argues others do not have the ability to improve or modify such innovations to help the public. Likewise, Stiglitz says corporations often abuse Intellectual Property laws, changing their ideas ever so slightly to reapply for another patent term, solely to extort profit from the public. However, Jefferson states that Intellectual property is meant to encourage innovation and incentivize new creation, but Stiglitz and Lethem feel this does more harm than good. What they fail to acknowledge is that, in many instances, IP has encouraged innovation and helped the general public. In some ways, it has even created industries, if there was no IP would there even be a pharmaceutical industry? This brings me to my guiding question: to what extent does Intellectual property create the pharmaceutical industry and promote innovation? I will also like to explore to what degree IP benefits the public domain in pharma, and how does it help solve the vast number of health problems we have today?

            Specifically, these research questions build off the controversy of the effectiveness of intellectual property in promoting and incentivizing innovation. I will look into the specifics of why we have a pharmaceutical industry, how much pharma companies invest in research and development, and relevant case studies of patents on drugs. In Ethan Watters essay “The Mega Marketing of Depression in Japan”, we see how pharmaceutical countries change the stigma of a certain illness (depression) so that those truly suffering from depression can receive the help they need. People like Stiglitz would argue that pharma companies are only doing so to make a profit, but aren’t people receiving the treatment they need? Unlike other industries, pharmaceutical patents last about 20 years, but it takes approximately 8-10 years for a drug to gain FDA approval, so companies only have about 10 years to make profit off a drug that they spent millions of dollars for in research and development. However, if there was no patent law, generic companies could replicate the formula and sell for cheap. Is this fair for pharma companies that invest millions of dollars in developing drugs to cure health problems of the world? People like Adam Smith (in his essay “Wealth of Nations”) argue that the less government intervention the better, but if there were no patents, would companies invest in solving health problems today? Simply put, would there even be a pharmaceutical industry?

            I plan to address this questions and evaluate how patents do more good than harm by explaining the importance of patents in creating an industry for drug creation. Of course firms are only created if they can create profit, so patents encourage new pharmaceutical firms to enter the industry and create drugs to help solve the numerous health enigmas of today. I will turn to Watters essay to show how pharmaceutical companies may be making a lot of money, but are helping the general public in the process. I will reference “The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Patent System” by Bruce Lehman to investigate the dangers of altering/abolishing patent law in pharma industry and to get a better idea of how patents drive creation. I will also acquire statistical innovation as it relates to pharmaceutical companies investment in Research and Development in drugs, how much profit they make overtime, how much they produce and I will look into how often new drugs are created/discovered. Overall I hope to prove that patents create and drive the pharmaceutical industry and encourage innovation to ultimately help the public.

Preliminary citations

Lehman, Bruce. The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Patent System. Luton, Eng.: White Cresent, 2003. Print.

Stiglitz, Joseph E. Making Globalization Work. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print.

Smith, Adam, and D. D. Raphael. The Wealth of Nations. New York: Knopf, 1991. Print.

Watters,Ethan. “The Mega Marketing of Depression in Japan.” The New Humanities

Reader. 5th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage, 2015. 512-529. Print.

Lethem, Jonathon. “The Ecstasy of Plagiarism: A Plagiarism.” The New Humanities

Reader. 5th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage, 2015. 210-234. Print.

Stiglitz, Joseph. “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society.” The New Humanities Reader. 5th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage, 2015. 394-417. Print.