• Leadership and Structure
• Corporate Governance
• Public Policy
  • Access and Affordability
  • Pricing and Value
    • Drug Spending and Utilization
    • Research and Development
    • Clinical Trials
    • Intellectual Property
      • Patent Process
    • Price Controls
    • Importation
    • Generics
  • Health Care Reform
  • Resources
  • Pat the Pill
• History
• Accolades

Pfizer Public Policy: Intellectual Property

Pfizer spends billions of dollars on medical research each year. The reason that companies like Pfizer can invest such vast sums is because they know that novel discoveries they make can be patented, and any products developed can be sold for a period of time on an exclusive basis to pay for the research not only on that product and the many products that failed, but more importantly for the products to come.

Key Points

• Protection of intellectual property is central to any creative endeavor, such as drug discovery, that requires the commitment of substantial amounts of money. Governments should ensure that intellectual property will be protected so that private companies can maintain their investment in research and development.
• Public policy must recognize the direct connection between protection of intellectual property and medical progress. Pfizer encourages and supports strict enforcement of patent laws worldwide.
• Pharmaceuticals have one of the lowest effective patent-life of any product - approximately 11 - 12 years.¹

Protection of intellectual property is a central principle for any creative endeavor that requires the commitment of substantial amounts of money. This is true whether the end product is a new drug, a CD, a computer program or a new product no one has ever conceived before.

Disregard for the protection of intellectual property would put medical research at risk. Private companies cannot afford to commit huge sums of money to research unless they are assured that a successful product can lead to exclusive sales.

Because of the time-consuming research process, pharmaceuticals have among the lowest "effective" patent-lifes of any product - that is, the length of time during which they can sell their product without competitors producing an exact copy.

While patents provide 20 years of protection for the inventor, as shown in Chart 1, most pharmaceutical products have approximately 11 to 12 years of "effective" patent-life because patents are applied for and granted early in the development stage, well before conducting lengthy clinical trials. Effective patent-life has been shrinking in recent years as generic companies are using the courts to try to get around patents before their expiration date. Learn More About the Patent Process.

Pfizer encourages the U.S. Government to enforce intellectual property protection not only in the United States, but to enforce U.S. patent protection in countries outside the United States. Some countries either disregard patents for drugs in an effort to stimulate the local production of cheaper versions, or actively establish policies that have the effect of undermining the protection of intellectual property.

Policymakers should appreciate the direct relationship between investment in research and future medical progress. Policies that protect the fruits of that research and provide incentives in the form of effective patents are critical to continued innovation.

¹ PhRMA. Fact Sheet: Pharmaceutical Patent Incentives. Available at:http://www.phrma.org Accessed on Oct. 26, 2005.

In This Section

Patent Process

Learn more about pharmaceutical patents.

• Visit Patent Process

Last Updated September 2007

If you do not have Adobe® Reader, download it here. It is available without charge from Adobe®. This link is provided as a convenience. Pfizer is not responsible for the content of this linked page.

A

B-D

E-H

I-N

O-P

R-Z

A-B

C

D-E

F-L

M-P

R-U

V-Z