Tax credits for pharmaceutical research, development and marketing?

BACKGROUND

The pharmaceutical industry is believed to receive considerable support through research and development (R&D) tax credits.

OBJECTIVE

The objectives of this paper are (a) to show that many of the pharmaceutical industry's apparent R&D activities are entangled with marketing efforts, and (b) to argue that supporting these activities through tax credits does not serve public interests in health.

METHODS

The bulk of this paper summarizes the author's extended qualitative mixed-methods approach to following connections between pharmaceutical research and marketing.

RESULTS

The pharmaceutical industry's R&D should be understood as broadly entangled with marketing, and so generally should be understood as integrated research, development and marketing (RD&M).

CONCLUSIONS

R&D tax credits to the pharmaceutical industry largely do not serve public interests.