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 ©

Tax profits obtained under the umbrella of patents higher, and plough those revenues back lowering medicine prices.

Sir, I refer to Jonathan Ford’s “Pricing of life-saving drugs is put under the microscope” Monday 17.

It is for sure a very difficult and delicate topic that of harmonizing the incentives needed for research to be carried out, with the need of the results of that research ending up being accessible for the general market.

Since open ended (no profit limits) intellectual property rights is the source of much current income inequalities, I have for some time now been suggesting those profits generated under the umbrella of patents, should be taxed at a higher rate than profits obtained when competing completely naked in the markets. 

Perhaps the revenues obtained with such taxes could be ploughed back in exchange for lower prices and thereby help to bridge somewhat the divide between the two objectives.

http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2014/08/my-current-list-of-prominent-inequality.html

http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2006/05/human-genetics-made-inhuman.html

@PerKurowski

What if by lottery some patents are yearly declared null, in order to keep the pharma industry on its toes?

Sir, David Shaywitz writes: “If the pharmaceuticals industry is to remain in the vanguard of science it will have to embrace a far leaner approach, with less bloated bureaucracy”, “Addiction to deals reveals the depth of pharma’s ill” May 2.

Is that really possible in an industry accustomed to working in the protective environment provided by patents? Is it not high time we see to that all that extra money we are asked to pay in order to reward inventions and stimulate new inventions go to that, and not to some other purpose, like the further enrichment of a 0.01% plutocracy?

Perhaps a yearly lottery, by which 5 percent of their patents are declared null, no reasons given, could give these companies more incentives to be on their toes.

Call it a dividend to humanity if you want… in payment for how humanity helped the inventors run the last mile for a patent.