Why the Government Should Subsidize the Purchase of Patented Pharmaceuticals

Economist Michael Kremer recently proposed that the government offer to buy important pharmaceutical patents from their respective patent holdersJ His argument is that public ownership would largely eliminate the monopolist ic distortions caused by the patent system, distortions that tend to be especially acute in the pharmaceutical context, z Under Kremer ' s proposal, the government would pay patent holders a sum sufficient to reward them for their research investments. In turn, the patent holders would relinquish their intellectual property