The Effect of Pharmaceutical Patent Term Length on RD and Drug Expenditures in Canada

摘要

The authors make a useful and original contribution to evaluating the impact of strengthened patent protection of pharmaceuticals on Canadian healthcare expenditures. This commentary argues that their second task – measuring the impact of strengthened patent protection on R&D spending in Canada – faces an insurmountable conceptual problem: Corporate decisions on the location of R&D activities bear no theoretical relationship to the location of sources of R&D funding and are guided by other factors, including political considerations.