Counting Patents over the Long Term

The patent system faces a paradox. It has never been so successful, while at the same time it is the subject of severe criticism (Bessy, 2019). In fact, current forms of financialization of intellectual property suggest new business models, with the patent becoming a “quasi financial asset” (Le Bas et al., 2011; Galvez-Behar, 2022).In this respect, the pharmaceutical industry is an experimental laboratory that is particularly interesting to study1. In recent years, it has regularly been accused of prioritizing profits made from patents over patient welfare. Like Keenan et al. (2023), many see this as a kind of transition that is indicative of the large-scale financialization of the industry, where the increasing focus on shareholder value and financial performance has led to cost-cutting, outsourcing, and new forms of competition driven…