Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2009
ISSN
1748-720X
Publisher
American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics
Language
en-US
Abstract
At last count, global pharmaceutical spending exceeded $750 billion. Unlike most medical products and services, many pharmaceuticals are sold at a price that greatly exceeds marginal cost. AIDS medicines that retail for over $10,000 per person per year in the United States can be produced generically at a marginal cost of less than $150. Patents and other related IP rights create these significant gaps between marginal cost and retail price, generating many billions of dollars in profits (patent rents) for companies.
Recommended Citation
Kevin Outterson,
Pharmaceutical Innovation: Law & the Public's Health
,
in
37
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
173
(2009).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1904
