Exactly.
There’s talk of reducing the time of patent exclusivity for pharmaceuticals. That means that drug companies won’t hold the patents for their drugs long enough to recoup the costs of developing the drug. The statists in congress want to get cheap generics on the market faster for the beleaguered masses.
Since it takes an average of 10 years and 1 billion dollars to develop a drug, pharma companies won’t be able to have the cash to do research and development. They would have to raise prices on the drugs or stop research (or be funded by the Fed?).
I’m sure there thinking is that if they can remove intellectual property from people more quickly that others will come in and ramp up production of that product (or process, etc.) Ultimately, there will be less incentive to create.
By the way, you are spot on about patents encouraging advances.
Once upon a time I did pharmaceutical work. In no industry is the patent process more screwed up than in pharmaceuticals. The process takes far too long, is far too expensive and in the end benefits the corporate bureaucrats far more than consumers.
Innovate, innovate, innovate. That’s the solution.