Why should profits made with IPR protection, patents, be taxed the same as profits made in the nude?

Sir, I refer to Andrew Ward’s “FT’s Big Read on Drug Prices: Tweaking the formula” April 26.

First of all I did not know of Nice and I must admit I am impressed that some formal rulings exist on whether to fund the use or not of some medicines. That certainly must help to put a lid on some bureaucrats’ “flexibility”.

That said, the article reminds me of a question I have posed many times before, including in Op-Eds in my country Venezuela, and in letters to you.

Why on earth should profits derived from operations under the protection of an Intellectual Property Right (IPR), patents, be taxed at the same rate than profits obtained fighting it out in the markets, naked, with no protection at all?

Surely the revenues of a special IPR/Patent profit tax could be ploughed back into some type of insurance scheme that could help cover some medicine costs the society can in general not afford to cover.

@PerKurowski ©

We need to attach a warning message to the credit ratings.

Sir Andrew Ward reports August 10 that President George W. Bush has said there was a “proper role for government” in enhancing financial literacy as “we had a lot of really hardworking Americans sign up for loans and the truth of the matter is they probably didn’t fully understand what they were signing up for”.

Mr Bush might have a point but from what we currently see those most in need of a financial literacy course seem to be all the investors struggling to make head and tails out of credit rating grades or financial models that really do not mean what they say.

Of course it also cannot only be a question about the reading but also about the writing. For a starter, as a minimum role for the government, I would suggest they start by making obligatory, whenever credit ratings are disclosed the inclusion of a “Warning, following these ratings blindly is dangerous to the financial well being of your portfolio.”