How Patents Harm Biotech Innovation

And now for the rest.. General point: I did not say that it was impossible for innovation to take place without patents, but rather that I did not believe (in the context of the modern pharmaceuticals industry) that it made much business sense to spend money developing new drugs if other companies can simply copy (the Italian story prior to 1978 suggests that I may be right). (My fault if I was not specific enough.) It can take over a decade to develop a new drug, and can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Why make this investment if an imitator can churn out copy-cat products? Surely it would be more lucrative to focus on developing efficient production techniques, marketing and brand-building? "Creative imitation" is not a bad business strategy if you can get away with it. Switzerland - I did not restrict my response merely to what you had said, but chose to expand my comment to Europe broadly as Europe in the 19th and 20th century is often used as an example of innovation without patents. With regards to Switzerland specifically, I pointed out that they have had process patents for most of the 20th century, so one has to go back to the 19th century to figure out what the Swiss situation was without patents. Firstly, there was not much a of global pharmaceutical industry back in the 19th century, which is why patent critics inevitably end-up trying to compare the dye and chemical industry in the 19th century to the pharmaceuticals industry in the 21st century. I am not entirely sure that this is a valid comparison. The processes required to bring a product to market in the dye industry in the 19th century are not that similar to the processes required to bring drugs to market today (clinical trials anyone?). Public health interests (and indeed patent legislation) require a certain amount of transparency when it comes to drug formulations, etc which would not have applied to 19th century dye sellers. Secondly, the lack of patents does not necessarily imply that the Swiss were unable to protect there innovations. Research by Petra Moser suggests that 19th century companies, in countries without patent protection, tended to focus there efforts in sectors where secrecy could achieve similar results as a patent. This is not a bad position to be in. The Swiss were able to copy their foreign competitors (patents require a certain amount of disclosure), and at the same time prevent (or delay) their foreign competitors from copying them (via trade secrets), or even patents in the foreign countries. This coupled with a myriad of other reasons would certainly have made Switzerland an attractive place to do business. I cannot challenge your contention that the Swiss were innovative before patents as this is difficult to quantify (count patents?). Petra Moser has however done work in this field. Moser studied the catalogs of the 19th century world fairs and found that the Swiss were major exhibitors (per capita). Although this research is usually used to justify the view that the Swiss were very innovative (before patents), I think presence at a trade show is just as likely to be indicative of superior marketing (which fits in with my views quite nicely). Finally, patents do not seem to have harmed the Swiss pharmaceutical industry in any real way as they are still major players today. PS What is with the sudden moderation of my comments :)