ABSTRACT
The pharmaceutical industry relies on innovation for its continued success and innovative companies spend billions of dollars annually on research and development (R&D) in order to develop the next generation of drugs. Humanity has without a doubt benefited, and continues to benefit, from industry development. Intellectual property rights (IPRs) play a key role in the pharmaceutical industry and in the advancement of R&D and innovation. While IPRs – and, more specifically, patents – are important for most industries and sectors, they are of particular importance to the pharmaceutical industry due to the high cost of product development, protracted product development timelines and the low rate of success with each new product line. For this reason, when a company develops a successful product it relies on the period of monopoly sales to recoup costs and provide incentive to reinvest profits into R&D in order to ensure it keeps producing innovative products. The granting of high-quality patents thus sustains the industry and benefits society.
