Article Summary. Since 2008, the United States has been involved in trade
negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement with
11 other countries on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. One area of the negotiations
involves patents and intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical industry. A
number of developing countries have ignored international agreements concerning
patents and intellectual property rights as a way to benefit their domestic
pharmaceutical industries, to the detriment of those companies which have spent
considerable time and money developing new medicines. For every 5,000 to 10,000
experimental drugs contemplated, only one will typically gain FDA approval, and
this occurs only after up to 15 years of research at an average cost of more than $1
billion. Also, 30 percent of the U.S. workforce is either directly or indirectly
employed in the pharmaceutical industry, so protection of these intellectual
property rights is very important for the U.S. economy. Source: Doug Schoen,
“Intellectual Property Rights Matter,” Forbes, September 24, 2013.
If more developing countries began abiding by international agreements which protect
intellectual property rights, all of the following would most likely occur except
A) pharmaceutical companies would increase investment in the development of more
experimental drugs.
B) pharmaceutical companies would consider expanding operations to these developing
countries.
C) more patents would be issued to pharmaceutical companies.
D) fewer dollars would be spent on the development of new medicines.
The Business Cycle Dating Committee, a part of the ________, officially decides when
a recession begins and ends.
A) federal government