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.